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Officials: Bush will adopt troop withdrawal

WASHINGTON — President Bush is buying into a force-reduction plan for Iraq that will leave as many American troops there by the middle of next year as were there when he decided in January on a temporary buildup plan.

Bush will go on national television Thursday night to discuss his decision to call back 30,000 soldiers and Marines, which mirrors numbers laid out in congressional testimony this week by his overall Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus.

While accepting Petraeus’ numbers, Bush will say in his 15-minute address from the White House that conditions on the battlefield will have to be right for it to happen. The White House plans to issue a written status report on Bush’s so-called surge on Friday, White House officials said.

At the White House on Tuesday, Bush met with lawmakers of both parties from the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he publicly pledged to consider their views. Sen. Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate’s Republican minority, said the president did not talk about his Thursday night speech.

Afterward, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said Bush was ready merely to bring the country back to where it was before the election that put Democrats in control of Congress last November, with 130,000 troops in Iraq.

“Please. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people that that is a new direction in Iraq,” she said. “We’re as disappointed as the public is that the president has a tin ear to their opinion on this war.”

Polls showed that revulsion over the war was a crucial ingredient in sweeping control of the Congress to the Democrats from Bush’s Republicans.

The administration officials spoke of Bush’s speech on condition of anonymity because it is not yet final. Bush was rehearsing his remarks Tuesday even as the Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, were presenting their arguments for a second day in Congress.

In the speech, the president will say he understands Americans’ deep misgivings about U.S. involvement in Iraq and their desire to bring the troops home, they said. Bush will say that, after hearing from Petraeus and Crocker, he has decided on a way forward that will reduce the U.S. military presence but not abandon Iraq to chaos, according to the officials.

The address will stake out a conciliatory tone toward Congress. While mirroring Petraeus’ strategy, however, Bush will place more conditions on reductions than his general did, insisting that conditions on the ground must warrant cuts and that unforeseen events could change the plan.

Petraeus recommended that a 2,000-member Marine unit return home this month without replacement. That would be followed in mid-December with the departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers. Under the general’s plan, another four combat brigades would be withdrawn by July 2008.

That could leave the United States with as few as 130,000-135,000 troops in Iraq, down from about 168,000 now.

Petraeus said he foresaw deeper troop cuts beyond July, but he recommended that Bush wait until at least March to decide when to go below 130,000 and at what pace.

In his speech, the president will discuss security improvements, notably in Anbar Province, which he visited on Labor Day and where Sunni leaders have allied themselves with U.S. forces to fight insurgents. He also will note incremental progress on the political front despite unhelpful roles played by Iran and Syria, the official said.

Crocker was particularly keen on detailing diplomatic developments, including Saudi Arabia’s move to open an embassy in Baghdad and a third conference of Iraqi neighbors to be hosted by Turkey in Istanbul at the end of October.

In Congress, cracks in Republican support for the Iraq war remained, as epitomized by heated questioning of Petraeus on Tuesday.

Echoing testimony given to the House on Monday, Petraeus and Crocker acknowledged that Iraq remains largely dysfunctional but said violence had decreased since the influx of added U.S. troops.

Crocker said he fears that announcing troop withdrawals, as Democrats want, would focus Iraqi attention on “building the walls, stocking ammunition and getting ready for a big nasty street fight” rather than working toward reconciliation. “It will take longer than we initially anticipated” for Iraq’s leaders to deal with the country’s problems, he said.

The hearing fell on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In an unusual admission, Petraeus said he was not sure whether his proposal on Iraq would make the United States safer.

A visibly heated Sen. John Warner, a venerable Republican noted as one of the Senate’s top people on security questions, asked Petraeus about that, and he replied: “Sir, I don’t know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted that out in my mind. What I have focused on and riveted on is how to accomplish the mission of the multinational force Iraq.”

Related reading:

• Petraeus grilled on Iraq troop drawdown

• Iraq ‘inching’ ahead, Congress told

• Analysis: Combat role not shrinking with force

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