President Bush yesterday said he will stop troop withdrawals from Iraq after July and has given his top general until next year to decide on future reductions, but his defense secretary said the administration hopes by mid-September to pull more troops out.
Democrats accused Mr. Bush of passing the buck to the next president and said the administration has not forced the Iraqi government to stand on its own militarily or economically.
Republican senators also yesterday joined calls from Democrats for the Bush administration to work more closely with Congress on a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that would dictate the terms of the U.S. military presence there, called a status of forces agreement (SOFA).
Mr. Bush’s announcement means that the next administration will likely inherit about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, if troop levels do not change after July. The president, however, said the war is not “endless.”
The president, in a 17-minute speech at the White House, also said he will shorten Army deployments from 15 months to 12 months, starting in August, and that he also will give soldiers a year at home between deployments.
Mr. Bush said he is following the advice of his top military commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, who recommended a 45-day period of “consolidation and evaluation” starting in August after the United States withdraws its 30,000 surge troops.
“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 M. Gates and the president’s war czar, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. 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.”
Mr. Bush said he will give Gen. Petraeus “all the time he needs” to decide on any further drawdowns. He also said that concerns at the Pentagon over the military’s strength and readiness are “real, but the Joint Chiefs have assured me that … our all-volunteer force is strong and resilient enough to fight and win this war on terror.”
Later in the day, however, Mr. Gates said troop levels will undergo only a “brief pause,” using a term that Mr. Bush pointedly rejected.
Mr. Gates said the administration would like to announce further troop reductions some time in mid-September, although he said he no longer thinks it will be possible to reduce the U.S. presence in Iraq to about 100,000 troops by the end of 2008, as he stated last September.
“The hope, depending on conditions on the ground, is to reduce our presence further this fall. But we must be realistic,” Mr. Gates said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I hope that you’re doing more than hoping,” said committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat.
Democrats panned the president’s “way forward” as the continuation of a war that, in its sixth year, has no end in sight.
“He has no plan to end this war,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said Mr. Bush has “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.
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