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07-10-2007, 11:53 AM
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Bush faces GOP pressure to change his war strategy, the White House announced Tuesday that an upcoming progress report will result in "the beginning of a new way" in Iraq.
White House spokesman Snow: "Everybody says, 'We want to do it a new way.' We agree. It's now started."
Six months after announcing an increase of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops that became known as the "surge," Bush is scheduled to appear at a town meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday where he's expected to push for a "post-surge" phase of the four-year war, senior officials told CNN.
However, senior administration officials said that the Bush administration does not plan to make any major changes in its war strategy despite increased calls from Republican lawmakers to begin a drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq.
In addition to reassuring the public, Bush's message is also intended to accomplish some "hand-holding with Republicans on the Hill," in the words of one senior official, to battle GOP defections. Watch Snow on whether this week marks "the beginning of the end" of the war »
An interim assessment of the Iraqi government's progress on 18 specific benchmarks is expected to be presented to Congress later in the week. Since May, Washington has pressured Iraqi leaders to act on benchmarks, which are tied to U.S. aid and are aimed at quelling sectarian violence.
The report will show "some of the benchmarks have been made, some of them haven't" and will set off a debate that will result in "the beginning of a new way," White House spokesman Tony Snow told CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday.
"What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," Snow said. "Everyone says, 'We want to do it a different way.' We agree. It's just now started."
One of those dissenting Republican senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said Tuesday that Bush "needs a new strategy" that is supported by more Americans.
"Not just because that would be a better strategy, but because a strategy can't sustain itself unless it has more broad support in the country, in the Congress, than his current strategy does," Alexander told CNN's "American Morning."
But Connecticut independent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, continued his longtime support of Bush's war strategy on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying that "American and Iraqi security forces are winning." The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate accused lawmakers of bowing to opinion polls and upcoming elections.
"Our responsibilities in this chamber ultimately do not allow us to be guided by our frustrations or even by public opinion polls when we respectfully believe that those public opinion polls do not reflect what is best for our nation," said Lieberman. "We were elected to lead."
According to a June CNN/Research Corporation poll, 66 percent of respondents disapprove of the way Bush has handled his job, and 67 percent of respondents said they oppose the Iraq war.
Another Republican who has broken with Bush, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, asked, "Why waste more time in not moving on to the next phase of the strategy, which is to change a mission and redeployment of our troops?"
According to White House spokesman Snow, Bush "wants to pull troops out when the commanders on the on the ground think it's appropriate to do so. You pull out of there quickly, you empower al Qaeda and you make the whole world more dangerous including things right here at home for us in the United States."
Alexander supports legislation that would start withdrawing some U.S. forces by the middle of next year and giving the remaining forces "a limited but long-term role in Iraq."
The Tennessee lawmaker said he is among 11 bipartisan senators who support legislation proposed by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, that would draw on the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.
The first key measure of how much the political ground has shifted could come as early as Tuesday, when senators consider an amendment from Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, that would limit how often U.S. troops could be deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under Webb's proposal, military personnel who return from deployments would have to remain stateside for at least as long as they spent overseas before they could be sent back; for National Guard and Reserve members, the time between deployments would have to be at least three times as long as the time spent in deployment.
Sources inside and outside the White House told CNN that discussions are taking place about what the alternative U.S. policy in Iraq would be if the troop increase does not work as planned.
But several senior administration officials said the administration still plans to wait for a progress report in September by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, before considering a change in strategy.
One senior administration official told CNN the benchmarks report "will present a picture of satisfactory progress on some benchmarks and not on others. This is to be expected, given the report is a preliminary snapshot of what are the early stages of the full 'surge'."
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans who have been critical of Bush's policy should join Democrats in supporting the amendments to the 2008 defense appropriations bill.
"We invite them to come with us. We put our arms around them," said Reid, who warned that "we cannot wait" until September's scheduled military policy review to make strategy changes.
The big concern, several aides said, is that the White House fears it will lose its ability to manage the war. As one official put it, "No one wants to lose control to Congress."
The other concern inside the White House, according to the aides, is that while nobody has figured out what an alternative policy would look like, the administration now is faced with "huge expectations" about September, when Petraeus reports.
"The president thought he had until after Congress returned from its August recess to present some progress there, but now, that timetable has been dramatically accelerated," one official said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/10/us.iraq/index.html
White House spokesman Snow: "Everybody says, 'We want to do it a new way.' We agree. It's now started."
Six months after announcing an increase of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops that became known as the "surge," Bush is scheduled to appear at a town meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday where he's expected to push for a "post-surge" phase of the four-year war, senior officials told CNN.
However, senior administration officials said that the Bush administration does not plan to make any major changes in its war strategy despite increased calls from Republican lawmakers to begin a drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq.
In addition to reassuring the public, Bush's message is also intended to accomplish some "hand-holding with Republicans on the Hill," in the words of one senior official, to battle GOP defections. Watch Snow on whether this week marks "the beginning of the end" of the war »
An interim assessment of the Iraqi government's progress on 18 specific benchmarks is expected to be presented to Congress later in the week. Since May, Washington has pressured Iraqi leaders to act on benchmarks, which are tied to U.S. aid and are aimed at quelling sectarian violence.
The report will show "some of the benchmarks have been made, some of them haven't" and will set off a debate that will result in "the beginning of a new way," White House spokesman Tony Snow told CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday.
"What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," Snow said. "Everyone says, 'We want to do it a different way.' We agree. It's just now started."
One of those dissenting Republican senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said Tuesday that Bush "needs a new strategy" that is supported by more Americans.
"Not just because that would be a better strategy, but because a strategy can't sustain itself unless it has more broad support in the country, in the Congress, than his current strategy does," Alexander told CNN's "American Morning."
But Connecticut independent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, continued his longtime support of Bush's war strategy on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying that "American and Iraqi security forces are winning." The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate accused lawmakers of bowing to opinion polls and upcoming elections.
"Our responsibilities in this chamber ultimately do not allow us to be guided by our frustrations or even by public opinion polls when we respectfully believe that those public opinion polls do not reflect what is best for our nation," said Lieberman. "We were elected to lead."
According to a June CNN/Research Corporation poll, 66 percent of respondents disapprove of the way Bush has handled his job, and 67 percent of respondents said they oppose the Iraq war.
Another Republican who has broken with Bush, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, asked, "Why waste more time in not moving on to the next phase of the strategy, which is to change a mission and redeployment of our troops?"
According to White House spokesman Snow, Bush "wants to pull troops out when the commanders on the on the ground think it's appropriate to do so. You pull out of there quickly, you empower al Qaeda and you make the whole world more dangerous including things right here at home for us in the United States."
Alexander supports legislation that would start withdrawing some U.S. forces by the middle of next year and giving the remaining forces "a limited but long-term role in Iraq."
The Tennessee lawmaker said he is among 11 bipartisan senators who support legislation proposed by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, that would draw on the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.
The first key measure of how much the political ground has shifted could come as early as Tuesday, when senators consider an amendment from Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, that would limit how often U.S. troops could be deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under Webb's proposal, military personnel who return from deployments would have to remain stateside for at least as long as they spent overseas before they could be sent back; for National Guard and Reserve members, the time between deployments would have to be at least three times as long as the time spent in deployment.
Sources inside and outside the White House told CNN that discussions are taking place about what the alternative U.S. policy in Iraq would be if the troop increase does not work as planned.
But several senior administration officials said the administration still plans to wait for a progress report in September by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, before considering a change in strategy.
One senior administration official told CNN the benchmarks report "will present a picture of satisfactory progress on some benchmarks and not on others. This is to be expected, given the report is a preliminary snapshot of what are the early stages of the full 'surge'."
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republicans who have been critical of Bush's policy should join Democrats in supporting the amendments to the 2008 defense appropriations bill.
"We invite them to come with us. We put our arms around them," said Reid, who warned that "we cannot wait" until September's scheduled military policy review to make strategy changes.
The big concern, several aides said, is that the White House fears it will lose its ability to manage the war. As one official put it, "No one wants to lose control to Congress."
The other concern inside the White House, according to the aides, is that while nobody has figured out what an alternative policy would look like, the administration now is faced with "huge expectations" about September, when Petraeus reports.
"The president thought he had until after Congress returned from its August recess to present some progress there, but now, that timetable has been dramatically accelerated," one official said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/10/us.iraq/index.html