posted January 10, 2007 04:32 PM              

Bush to Acknowledge Flaws in Iraq Planning
President to Explain Need for 21,500 More Troops

By JENNIFER LOVEN
AP

WASHINGTON (Jan. 10) - President Bush will tell a nation weary of war Wednesday night that he is sending 21,500 more Americans to Iraq, arguing it has been a mistake not to commit larger numbers of U.S and Iraqi troops to stabilize the increasingly violent, shattered country. Democrats pledged to confront Bush over the troop escalation set to begin next week.

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Unveiling his retooled war strategy in a prime-time address from the White House, the president will acknowledge in unusually stark terms how dire the situation is - because of errors in U.S. assumptions and failures by the government in Iraq to follow through on promises.

The U.S. is changing its goals, switching from a focus on training Iraqi security forces to securing the battered population and targeting economic aid toward the worst violence. Bush is putting the onus on the Iraqis to meet their responsibilities and take the lead in the fighting, but without the threat of specific consequences if they do not.

"The Iraqis have to step up," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said.

Bartlett also said that the rules of the past, where for instance U.S. forces in Baghdad "sometimes were handcuffed by political interference by the Iraqi leadership," must end.

Violence in Iraq
"They (the Iraqis) are going to have more boots on the ground," he said. "They're going to be the ones doing the knocking on the door."

The new Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, emboldened by November elections that put them in charge on Capitol Hill, met with Bush. They said they told him they would call votes on the troop increase, which they oppose along with many members of their party and the GOP.

"To remind, this is the third time we are going down this path. Two times this has not worked," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. "Why are they doing this now? That question remains."

Republican leaders emerged from the meeting promising to back Bush. "The fundamental decision to stay on offense and to finish the job, I think is correct," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But many of their own were growing restless. "I do not want to embarrass the president, but I do not support a surge" in troops, said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.

After nearly four years of fighting, $400 billion and thousands of American and Iraqi lives lost, approval of the president's handling of the war hit a record low of 27 percent in December, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Bush was to acknowledge a long and worsened list of problems in Iraq: the government's capabilities still are limited, sectarian divisions have widened, members of Iraqi security forces are contributing to the violence and suffer from high absenteeism, fighting in Baghdad between Shiites and Sunnis has increased and is influencing the rest of the country, essential services still are lacking, Iraqi support for the U.S. is declining, and Iraqis - while committed to a unified country - are increasingly turning from the central government to pursue more narrow sectarian agendas to hedge their bets.

The president is arguing that a gradual increase in U.S. troops, opposed by some key military leaders as a potentially ineffective strain on the armed forces, is the answer - along with pumping an extra $1 billion into Iraq's faltering economy.

His justification rests in part on the conclusion that while Iraqis must take responsibility for ending sectarian fighting, they don't have the resources to do it alone. The White House is confident al-Maliki is better able to follow through on promises of the kind that have been made before and never kept. Bush also will urge Americans who he knows are impatient to see success in Iraq as imperative to their future security.

A breakdown of the additional troops was provided by a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the increase has not been officially announced:

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-Bush is committing 17,500 U.S. combat troops to Baghdad. The first of five brigades will arrive by next Monday. The next is to arrive by Feb. 15 and the reminder will go in 30-day increments.

-The president is committing 4,000 more Marines to Anbar Province, a base of the Sunni insurgency and foreign al-Qaida fighters.

-The Iraqis are committing three brigades for Baghdad - about 10,000 to 12,000 total - the first on Feb. 1. Two more will arrive on Feb. 15th.

Policies governing the Pentagon's access to the National Guard and reserve may have to be changed to allow for more, or longer, mobilizations to make the president's increase possible, officials said.

Al-Maliki has assured Bush that Shiite militias that have been terrorizing the Sunni minority in Baghdad will not be immune. "This is going to be an operation in Baghdad that will make no difference between Shiite, Sunni or other types of illegal militia or illegal activity," Bartlett said.

Bush will link the U.S. troop infusion to other steps by the Shiite-led Iraqi government, such as enacting a plan to distribute oil revenue to all the country's sects, easing restrictions on government posts for Sunni members of deposed leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and committing $10 billion of its own money for reconstruction.

The White House anticipates that stability in Baghdad can be achieved by summer, so that U.S. troops will be able to pull back to areas outside the capital. Iraqis were expected to be in control of security in all 18 of Iraq's provinces by November, the official said.

The president is ignoring a key recommendation of the bipartisan, independent Iraq Study Group, that he solicit help from Syria and Iran, the official said. Instead, he will call for increased operations against nations meddling in Iraq, aimed at Iran and, to a lesser degree, Syria.

Among other steps by the United States are a doubling of an existing reconstruction program focused on helping communities outside the international zone in Baghdad and a call for friendly Mideast nations to increase support for Iraq.

The president's address is the centerpiece of an aggressive public relations campaign that also includes detailed briefings for lawmakers and a series of appearances by Bush starting with a trip Thursday to Fort Benning, Ga. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Mideast a day after appearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at Democratically convened Iraq hearings on Thursday.

While Bush considered his options over nearly three months, the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq passed 3,000, Saddam was hanged for atrocities committed under his leadership, and the president made major changes in his Iraq team.