Bush postpones speech on Iraq strategy

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 12, 2006

WASHINGTON – President Bush knows the general direction he wants to move U.S. policy on Iraq but won’t announce it until next month, the White House said Tuesday.

Military commanders were recommending more U.S. advisers and equipment for Iraqi forces, a defense specialist said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president had expected to make a speech before Christmas to announce his new strategy for Iraq, but still had questions and was not yet ready to make all the decisions he needed to make.

While planning to recommend more advisers, commanders who met with Bush on Tuesday were not suggesting more U.S. combat troops in Iraq, said the defense specialist, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said they were urging the administration to pour significantly more funding into equipment for the Iraqi Security Forces.

The message to Bush, the expert said, is that the U.S. cannot withdraw a substantial number of combat troops by early 2008, as suggested in the recent Iraq Study Group report, because the Iraqis will not be ready to assume control of their country.

Iraq has proposed that its troops assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year and that U.S. troops be shifted to the capital’s periphery, The New York Times reported on its Web site Tuesday night.

A majority of Americans – 52 percent of poll respondents, including nearly one in three Republicans – favor setting a fixed timetable for bringing troops home from Iraq, while only 26 percent of those surveyed favored the president’s option of keeping troops on the ground until the country is secure, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

Just 12 percent would support a plan to increase troop strength, according to the poll, released Tuesday.

Forty-five percent said they had more trust in Democrats to handle the war, while 34 percent said they had more confidence in the president.

Nearly two-thirds said they believe Iraq has descended into “civil war,” which Bush has denied.

Associated Press

President Bush meets with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on Tuesday in the Oval Office at the White House.