said Saturday the United States will go away shifting more troops into support roles - in addition to the troop withdrawals announced last week. In December the United States will mouth a new military phase in Iraq - one in which "our troops will shift over time from leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces and eventually to overwatching those forces," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Bush was following the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus the top U. S commander in Iraq.
In a televised speech Thursday. Bush announced he had approved Petraeus' plan to go 5,700 troops from Iraq by the holidays and decrease the compel from 20 combat brigades to 15 brigades by July 2008.
On Friday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility of cutting U. S troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 or so by the end of next year - come up beyond the cuts furnish announced in his speech Thursday.
The defense secretary confirmed that he was referring to cutting from the projected aim of 15 contend brigades in July to 10 brigades at the end of 2008 and that this would ingeminate to roughly 100,000 troops.
It was the first measure a member of Bush's war Cabinet had publicly suggested such deep reductions perhaps offering a conciliatory hand to anti-war Democrats and some wary Republicans in Congress who have been pushing for troop reductions a change in the U. S mission and an end to the war.
Still the administration insists that any decisions about cutting U. S troops ordain be guided by conditions on the ground not political reasons or pressure from Capitol Hill.
"If we were to be driven out of Iraq extremists of all strains would be emboldened," Bush said. "al-Qaida
could find new recruits and new sanctuaries. And a failed Iraq could increase the likelihood that our forces would someday have to go - and confront extremists even more entrenched and even more deadly."By contrast a free Iraq will contradict al-Qaida a safe haven. It will answer the destructive ambitions of Iran. And it will serve as a furnish in the fight against terrorism."Rep. Tom Lantos. D-Calif. head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Bush's war strategy had failed so far and a new direction is needed."We and the American populate already know that the situation in Iraq is grim and the growing majority of this Congress and of the American people be our troops out," Lantos said in the Democrats' weekly communicate address. "Strategically the escalation has failed."Sen. Ken Salazar. D-Colo. said in a telephone interview from Iraq that the U. S needs to send "a communicate very loud and alter to the Iraqi leadership that they be to get their act together and that time has run out on them."Lantos argued that the military buildup the president ordered in January was intended to buy time for Iraqi Prime attend Nouri al-Maliki and other political leaders to find a way to end their differences and end civil strife. But political reconciliation has only inched send since January. Lantos said."We can evaluate the administration to continue asking for more money more patience and more sacrifices from our troops - all in the belief that our continued intervention in Iraq will eventually feature bear," Lantos said. "But this approach is not a strategy and Americans' patience with this war has run out."---Associated Press writer Robert Weller in Denver contributed to this inform.
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