Bush to halt Iraq troop withdrawal

President Bush this morning announced he will halt troop reductions in Iraq this summer and said he will give his military commander in Iraq all the time he needs to decide on future troop levels, but said also that the U.S. is not stuck in an endless war.”

The president, in a 17-minute speech from the White House, made the expected announcement that he will pause troop withdrawals from Iraq at the end of July, and that he will also shorten troop deployments from 15 months to 12 months, starting in August.

Mr. Bush said he was following the advice of his top military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, who has recommended a 45-day period of consolidation and evaluation starting in August.

But the president said that he was acting from a position of strength gained by the surge of 30,000 troops over the last year.

“With the surge a major strategic shift has occurred,” Mr. Bush said, speaking to an audience of about 100 people that included Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the president’s war czar, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute.

Fifteen months ago, America and the Iraqi government were on the defensive. Today, we have the initiative, he said. Thanks to the surge, we’ve renewed and revived the prospect of success.

Democrats panned the presidents way forward as the continuation of a war that, now in its sixth year, has no end in sight, with no prospect for a U.S. exit.

The President confirmed what Ive been saying for some time: he has no plan to end this war, said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat.

His plan is to muddle through and then to hand the problem off to his successor, Mr. Biden said. So the result of the surge is that were right back where we started before it began 15 months ago: with 140,000 troops in Iraq, spending $3 billion every week, losing 30 to 40 American lives every month, and still no end in sight.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said Mr. Bush had signaled to the American people that he has no intention of bringing home any more troops.

He is leaving all the tough decisions to the next president of the United States, Mr. Reid said.

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have avoided calling for an immediate withdrawal but have said that if elected they would begin a gradual withdrawal with a clear end date.

But Mr. Bush insisted that the security gains achieved by the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq over the past year must be maintained, and said he will not bow to pressure for a pullout or timeline for withdrawal.

The pause in withdrawals will take place in July once U.S. forces return to just above the pre-surge level of about 140,000 troops, or 15 brigades.

Mr. Bush, however, took issue with the word pause, saying that none of our operations in Iraq will be on hold.

Story Continues →