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Troops Express Worries About Iraq    [

    White House Sees "Huge Challenges" in Iraq
    Reuters

    Thursday 17 August 2006

    Washington - Amid a largely bleak picture in Iraq, President Bush received an update on the security situation from top commanders on Thursday and the White House said "huge challenges" remain.

    Bush held talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior advisers. Participating by video link were top generals George Casey and John Abizaid.

    White House spokesman Tony Snow said he suspected there could be some discussion about U.S. troop levels in Iraq but he had no details.

    "When you're getting a comprehensive review, one of the questions that's going to come up is, what do we need? The president has always said that that's the first question he asks his commanders, and I suspect that it will arise today," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

    Bush is under election-year pressure to start bringing some troops home this year, but a spasm of violence in Baghdad has forced commanders to move some American forces from other parts of Iraq into the capital.

    The New York Times reported on Thursday that the number of daily strikes against American and Iraqi security forces has doubled since January.

    But Bush says he will not be governed by public-opinion polls or political considerations in making decisions about Iraq, which he calls a central front in the war on terrorism.

    The Times quoted an unnamed military affairs expert who briefed at the White House last month as saying senior administration officials "have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy" in Iraq.

    "Just Not True"

    Snow opened his daily briefing by saying, "It's just not true."

    The Bush administration is insisting that Iraq is not sliding into a civil war despite weeks of sectarian violence that have killed hundreds of Iraqis.

    "The administration continues, though, to take a very close and candid look at what's going on. The security situation in some places is uneven. And it's clear that there are huge challenges that await us," Snow said.

    A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found Americans significantly more pessimistic about the situation in Iraq now than they were two months ago.

    In June, after the killing of Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 53 percent of Americans thought the situation was going well in Iraq, while only 41 percent believe so now after weeks of sectarian violence, the poll said.

    The survey also said that 52 percent of Americans believe there should be a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops, while 41 percent believe there should not be.

    Bush's overall job approval rating was at 37 percent, which is in the danger zone for a president whose party is seeking to retain control of the U.S. Congress in the November election.

    Democrats accuse Bush of staying the course with a failed policy in Iraq and say the Iraq war is draining resources from fighting the greater threat to U.S. security, al Qaeda.

    "We need a new direction. We need to refocus our attention on destroying the enemy that attacked us five years ago, protecting America, and rebuilding our military," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada on Wednesday.

 

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    Troops Express Worries About Iraq
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 17 August 2006

    Washington - President Bush is not frustrated over the slow progress in Iraq, the White House insists. But a lot of other Americans are - apparently including U.S. troops.

    The Pentagon's top general says troops suggested to him during a recent trip to Iraq that they are among those who are worried.

    White House spokesman Tony Snow took pains to deny a report Wednesday that Bush had privately expressed frustration with the Iraqis for not appreciating American sacrifices made there and with the Iraqi people and their leaders for not supporting the U.S. mission.

    "We don't expect ... an overnight success," Snow said when asked Bush's opinion on the government of

    Just when success might come - and whether it is even possible - are key questions for war-weary Americans. And the latest setbacks in Iraq come as congressional elections approach.

    Troops are also disgruntled over Iraqi efforts, according to questions put to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he visited the country over the weekend.

    One asked how much more time the Iraqi government should be given to achieve the political unity needed to stabilize the country.

    Another wanted to know whether U.S. forces will stay if Iraqis descend into all-out civil war.

    And a third ended a question about continued U.S. troop deployments to Iraq by asking, "Is the war coming to an end?"

    Pace said his talks with troops reassured him that they are proud of what they're doing and satisfied with what they've accomplished.

    But he also said he detected among them "some frustration at the Iraqis for not yet grasping the opportunity that's in front of them."

    Rival Shiite and Sunni sects have failed to reconcile their differences and establish an effective government capable of taking over security responsibilities for the country.

    Pace said the troops feel, "`We're doing our part. When is the (Iraqi) governance part going to kick in?' And that's a fair question."

    Pushing Iraqis along for three years through formation of an interim government, the writing of their constitution and election of the current government - only to have the fighting worsen - has grown old for many in civilian and military quarters.

    Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sounded one of his recurring themes at a recent committee hearing: Iraqi politicians must get the message that U.S. troops can't stay indefinitely, and should make political compromises to stop insurgents and avoid all-out civil war.

    "There's a certain irony if military and political leaders seem to be losing patience with the Iraqis," said Charles Pena, a fellow at the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy and George Washington University's homeland security institute. "We're the ones who created this situation."

    "It's perfectly logical for Americans and the president to be frustrated" by lack of political progress in Iraq, said CATO Institute's Christopher Preble. He blamed Bush's "grave error" in assuming that Iraqis would unite after Saddam Hussein's fall.

    Eric Davis, a Rutgers University political science professor and former head of the university's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said he's disturbed that the Iraq debate is "increasingly being turned into a referendum on George Bush."

    Suggestions that Iraqis own some of the blame infuriate him as well.

    "This whole 'blaming Iraqis' thing is a simple way of trying to weasel out ... to say, 'They're not really trying to make political change, so we should leave,"' said Davis, one of several outside experts invited to a Monday meeting of Bush's war cabinet.

    Snow worked hard to knock down a New York Times report Wednesday that Bush seemed frustrated with Iraqis during Monday's meeting.

    "I've spoken with the note-taker in the meeting. I was in the meeting. I've talked to others in the meeting," he told White House reporters. All attending took exception to the use of the word "frustrated" to describe the president's thinking, Snow said.

    Sectarian tensions have been rising following the Feb. 22 bombing at a Shiite shrine, which triggered a wave of reprisals against Sunni mosques and clerics and sent tens of thousand of Iraqis fleeing from their homes.

    U.S. generals say Iraq could slide into a full-blown civil war if the killing isn't tamped down. Though they'd hoped U.S. troop levels could be reduced this year, officials have extended some tours of duty, sending 5,000 additional Americans to Baghdad to help with security. The total there now is some 133,000.

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