Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq
By DEB RIECHMANN
The Associated Press
Monday, September 3, 2007; 8:06 AM
AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on
Monday, using the war zone as a backdrop to argue his case that the buildup of
U.S. troops is helping stabilizing the nation.
The president secretly flew 11 hours to Iraq as a showdown nears with Congress
over whether his decision in January to order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq
is working.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush, and convened a meeting
with the country's top political leaders to highlight Bush administration hopes
for prodding Iraq into a "bottom-up" approach to national reconciliation.
Gates conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, before opening a session with Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.
Bush and his national security team flew directly to this air base in a remote
part of Anbar province, bypassing Baghdad in a symbolic expression of
impatience with political paralysis in the nation's capital. The gesture
underscored the U.S. belief that the spark for progress may come at the local
level.
Next week, Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S.
ambassador in Baghdad, testify before Congress. Their assessment of the
conflict, along with a progress report the White House must give lawmakers by
Sept. 15, will determine the next chapter of the war.
The United States cannot sustain the troop buildup indefinitely. And with
Democrats calling for withdrawals and a rising U.S. death toll that has topped
3,700, the president is hardpressed to give Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki's much more time to find a political solution to the fighting.
Bush stopped in Iraq ahead of his visit to Australia for an economic summit
with Asia-Pacific leaders. The trip was a closely held secret for obvious
security reasons, although speculation about the trip arose late last month
when first lady Laura Bush said she was staying home to tend to a pinched nerve
in her neck.
The president, who also went to Iraq at Thanksgiving 2003 and in June 2006, was
scheduled to leave for Australia on Monday, but Air Force One took off from
Andrews Air Force Base Sunday evening instead.
He was joined by his top advisers, including National Security Adviser Stephen
Hadley. Joining Gates were Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.
Fallon flew aboard Gates' Air Force plane from Washington. The mission to shore
up support for the war was shared with only a small circle of White House
staffers and members of the media, who were told that if news of his trip
leaked early, it would be scrapped.
The White House arranged Bush's trip at a pivotal juncture in the Iraq debate.
Some prominent GOP lawmakers have broken with Bush on his war strategy, but so
far, most Republicans have stood with Bush. In exchange for their loyalty, they
want to see substantial progress in Iraq soon.
Making his case before the Sept. 15 report deadline, Bush recently delivered a
series of speeches to highlight how the temporary military buildup has routed
out insurgents and foreign fighters.
The president has described what he calls "bottom-up" progress in Iraq and
often cites a drop in violence in Anbar Province, once a hotbed of insurgency.
The turnaround occurred when Sunni Arab leaders joined forces with U.S. troops
to hunt down members of al-Qaida, although it's unclear whether they'll back a
unified Iraqi government as well.
Critics of the war argue that while the troop buildup may have tamped down
violence, the Iraqis are making almost no headway toward political
reconciliation. They cite a handful of gloomy progress reports trickling out of
Washington that show some success in curbing violence, but little progress
toward political power-sharing agreements.
There are now 162,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including 30,000 that arrived since
February as part of Bush's revised strategy to provide security so Iraqi
leaders could build a unity government.
Bush met on Friday with his top military chiefs at the Pentagon who expressed
concern about a growing strain on American troops and their families from long
and often multiple combat tours.
Still, early indications are that the president intends to stick with his
current approach _ at least into 2008 _ despite pressure from the
Democratic-led Congress and some prominent Republicans. Right now, the White
House is working to keep Republican members of Congress in the president's fold
to prevent Democrats from amassing the strength to slash war funds or mandate
immediate troop withdrawals.
___
AP military writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
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"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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