Rice plays down Bush meeting with US generals on Iraq

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 21 October 2006

Body:


MOSCOW, Oct 21, 2006 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played
down the importance of a meeting Saturday between President George W. Bush
and his top generals on US strategy in Iraq, saying it did not signal a
full scale reevaluation of policy on the war.

The meeting comes amid a bloody surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad and
growing calls for a change in strategy in Iraq, which has become a huge
liability for Bush's Republicans less than three weeks before legislative
elections.

"I wouldn't read into this somehow that there is a full scale push or major
reevaluation" of Iraq strategy, Rice told reporters accompanying her on a
trip to Moscow to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Attending the meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David will be
General John Abizaid, Bush's top commander in the Middle East, Vice
President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

The top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, will take part by
videoconference from Baghdad, US officials said.

"The president frequently talks with his generals, including the kind of
Saturday meeting that is taking place with General Casey and others," Rice
said, noting that she attended a similar meeting at Camp David two weeks
ago.

"The Baghdad security plan was always to be reevaluated at the time of the
end of the plan, which is the end of Ramadan," she said, referring to the
Muslim holy month that ends on Monday.

"They are always looking at what course we're on, whether or not it's
working," she said.

"I'm quite certain that given the problems of violence in Iraq and the fact
that the violence is not coming down to the degree that we would have
hoped, that there is going to be a lot of discussion about how we address
that," she said.

The meeting comes as Iraqi police battled Shiite militia for control of a
city that had recently been turned over to Iraqi security forces.

A top US general also acknowledged this week that a campaign to secure
Baghdad had failed to dampen sectarian violence there.

Opposition Democrats called on Bush to revise his strategy and convene an
international conference to support a political settlement in Iraq.

So far this month, 75 US troops have been killed, making October one of the
deadliest months for the US military since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
 
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