The Australian-The World
Poll may force Bush to toss out Iraq plan
Correspondents in Washington
October 21, 2006
IRAQ will be at the forefront of American voters' minds in the November 7 congressional elections, George W. Bush has acknowledged, as US politicians and analysts said the mid-term poll would force the administration to abandon its Iraq strategy.
Reports yesterday said growing doubts among Republicans about the Bush administration's Iraq plan, coupled with the prospect of Democratic wins in next month's elections, would force the President to abandon his open-ended commitment to the war.
Senior figures in both parties were coming to the conclusion the Bush administration would be unable to achieve its goal of a stable, democratic Iraq within a politically feasible time frame, The Washington Post reported.
Agitation was growing in Congress for alternatives to the administration's strategy of keeping Iraq in one piece and getting its security forces up and running while 140,000 US troops try to keep a lid on rapidly spreading sectarian violence.
Analysts have suggested the Republicans are keen to avoid discussing the war in the run-up to the elections, with Mr Bush hoping to focus attention on national security.
At a White House ceremony this week to sign into law a bill for trying terror suspects, Mr Bush mentioned the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001, six times, Iraq not once. But the surge in sectarian violence and US military deaths have made the issue impossible to ignore.
Mr Bush was asked if the rising death toll - US forces yesterday reported a 22 per cent increase in attacks during the holy month of Ramadan - showed the Iraq campaign was failing.
"If that's a definition of success or failure - the number of casualties - then you're right," he replied. "I define success or failure as to whether we're seeing a democracy that will grow in the heart of the Middle East."
He added: "I've always found that when a person goes in to vote, they're going to want to know what that person's going to do. What is the plan for a candidate on Iraq? What do they believe?"
Mr Bush said he reads "every casualty" and recognised the "difficulty of the task" but insisted: "We won't cut and run."
One poll this week found 64per cent of Americans believed going to war in Iraq was a mistake.
Mr Bush this week suggested that the latest wave of violence, which has put October on course to be one of the US military's bloodiest months, was linked to the mid-term elections.
Asked if the situation in Iraq was similar to the Tet offensive in Vietnam of almost 40 years ago, Mr Bush replied: "Could be right. There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."
A report from the Iraq Study Group, led by former US secretary of state James Baker, is expected to set out alternatives to the "stay the course" strategy.
The commission has been compared to the "three wise men" who advocated a dramatic change of course after the Tet offensive in Vietnam, widely seen as a turning point in the war - a finding that is also thought to have persuaded president Lyndon Johnson to pull out of the re-election race.
Few officials in either party are talking about an immediate pullout of US combat troops. But interest appears to be growing in several broad ideas. One would be some kind of effort to divide the country along regional lines. Another, favoured by many Democrats, is a gradual withdrawal of troops over a set period of time. A third would be a dramatic scaling-back of US ambitions in Iraq, giving up on democracy and focusing only on stability.
The Times, Agencies
Oh he's got a plan all right the nothing plan.
Well, King George may now change his mind. Is this to avoid his prior statements that he doesn't pay attention to polls?
The BBC News
Saturday, 21 October 2006, 14:55 GMT 15:55 UK
Bush consults top Iraq generals
(Author not given)
The road near the bus bomb was scattered with fireworks
US President George W Bush is holding a video conference with his senior generals in Iraq to discuss the escalating violence there.
Mr Bush has said they may focus on changing tactics to combat the unrest, but not the overall military strategy.
In his radio address, he said that he would employ "every necessary change" to quell the surge in attacks.
There was more violence on Saturday as four people died and 15 were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Baghdad bus.
The bomber was aboard the bus and one Iraqi soldier at the scene told Reuters news agency that a surviving passenger said she had overheard the bomber speaking to someone on the phone just prior to the blowing himself up.
According to the AFP news agency the bus, which was set alight by the blast, was packed with women and children who had been shopping in preparation for the Eid holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Children's clothes and toys, as well as celebration fireworks, littered the ground and the wreckage of the bus, which exploded close to the Sarafiyah bridge in central Baghdad.
In his weekly radio broadcast, Mr Bush acknowledged that Ramadan had been a "rough" period for people in Iraq, with a rise.
But he added that the US "will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete".
His comments come amid fears that Mr Bush's Iraq policy could cost his party control of Congress in upcoming polls.
Opinion polls suggest two-thirds of Americans think the president's strategy in Iraq has failed.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the figure could translate into catastrophic election losses in mid-term elections next month, which might see the Democrats back in power in Congress and the Bush presidency becoming the lamest of lame ducks.
Leaders of the opposition Democrat Party have sought to put further pressure on Mr Bush by calling for the start of a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
They also want the president to convene an international conference to support what they call a political settlement in Iraq.
Amid the mounting domestic pressure for a change of strategy in Iraq, Mr Bush was consulting on tactics with Gen John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, and Gen George Casey, the leader of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
"Our goal hasn't changed, but the tactics are constantly adjusting to an enemy which is brutal and violent," he said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the meeting was one of a series of regular consultations and had been scheduled "for weeks".
Concerns about rising violence in Iraq have been further fuelled by clashes between Iraqi police and gunmen loyal to the radical cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, in the southern town of Amara.
Medical sources say 31 people were killed in street battles on Thursday and Friday, and many more were injured.
The Iraqi army has now been deployed to quell the violence and Kareem Abdullah Shayal, one of the soldiers deployed said things were now calm in the city.
In another development, the Iraqi president's security adviser said Iraqi forces trying to improve security in Baghdad were under-funded, badly trained and poorly equipped.
Wafiq al-Samarra'i said that sometimes the insurgents and death squads had better weapons than the security forces trying to combat them.
Iraq has turned into a failed state. It's high time Bush and his followers acknowledged their failed policies and left Iraqis alone to sort out the mess that the invasion caused.
The comments come a day after the US military said there had been a "disheartening" 22% rise in attacks in Baghdad this month, despite a two-month-old security operation.
Launched in June, Operation Together Forward is a joint US and Iraqi security drive in which thousands of extra troops have been deployed in Baghdad.
On Wednesday, Mr Bush said the escalation of violence in Iraq "could be" comparable to the 1968 Tet Offensive against US troops, which helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War.
With 73 US soldiers killed so far, October is on course to become the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq for two years.