White House aide asserts Bush administration pursues flexible war policy in Iraq

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline:
Date: 23 October 2006


WASHINGTON_The fledgling Iraqi government must "step up and take more
responsibility" for the country's security, a high-ranking White House
official said Monday.

At the same time, Dan Bartlett denied in a television interview that the
Bush administration's war policy has been a sweeping "stay the course"
commitment, saying "what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in
the sand."

Senior members of President George W. Bush's national security team attended
White House meetings Monday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, just back
Asia and Russia, was first to show up. She was followed by Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.

In contrast to earlier White House statements, Bartlett did not deny a New
York Times report saying the head of the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in
Iraq and the U.S. ambassador were working on a plan that for the first time
would set a specific timetable for disarming militias and meeting other
political and economic goals.

"I was a bit puzzled about the report over the weekend because it was
stating something that we've been talking publicly about for months," the
senior White House counselor said on CBS television's "The Early Show."
Bartlett said the goal is to "define demonstrable milestones and benchmarks"
and said it has been "very much a part of our strategy all along."

The White House earlier had said the report in Sunday's editions of the
Times was not accurate. Bartlett said he thought it "might have been
overwritten."

"It's never been a stay the course strategy," he said. "The enemy we're
fighting is a very determined one. They're very lethal. ... But we are going
to prevail and it's going to require the Iraqis themselves to step up and
take more responsibility, and that's something we'll be impressing on them
in the weeks and months ahead."

Meanwhile, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh on Monday urged
international forces to remain even in the face of the violence, saying it
was no time to panic.

"I have to say, because there is too much of a pessimistic tone to this
debate _even I would say in certain circles a defeatist tone," Saleh told
the British Broadcasting Corp. before meeting in London with Prime Minister
Tony Blair.

Bartlett, appearing on ABC television's "Good Morning America," said the top
commanders there have not asked for more troops, "but President Bush has
made clear if they want them, they'll get them."

Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee,
said "I was amazed by this statement by Dan Bartlett that we've always been
flexible."

"It's a civil war," Biden said on CBS. "They still talk about this being a
war against terrorists." He said U.S. forces cannot "stand down" because the
Iraqi Army "can't stand together."

Bartlett, appearing on CNN, said that "if we do as some have suggested _
let's just set a timetable and get out as quickly as possible _ that can
only embolden the enemy, it could only provide sanctuary for terrorism and
that's going to be a situation that makes our country less secure and that's
something the president is not going to accept."

Stating expectations for the government led by Nouri al-Maliki is something
the administration has been "working on for months with the Iraqis," he
added. "We've been negotiating with them to discuss exactly what those goals
and milestones would look like," Bartlett said.
 
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