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U.S.: Bush Speech On Iraq Focuses On Training Local Forces, Offers No Timetable

By Andrew Tully

U.S. President George W. Bush is going on the offensive in an effort to restore support for the war in Iraq. He has planned four speeches leading up to Iraq's parliamentary elections on 15 December. He delivered the first of those speeches today before a supportive audience of cadets at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, near Washington. At the same time, the White House issued a 35-page document titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which elaborated on Bush's themes.

Washington, 30 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Bush's speech offered no new details of his strategy in Iraq, but gave new focus to many of the points he has made several times in the past.

Bush again called for patience, saying rebuilding Iraq will take time, and he again rejected the idea of setting any timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying that would serve only to abandon Iraq and allow insurgents simply to wait until the Americans are gone.

The president's emphasis in today's speech was the training of Iraqi forces so they take increasing responsibility for the country's security, allowing American troops to assume new duties.

"We [U.S. forces] will continue to shift from providing security and conducting operations against the enemy nationwide [in Iraq], to conducting more specialized operations targeted at the most dangerous terrorists. We will increasingly move out of Iraqi cities, reduce the number of bases from which we operate, and conduct fewer patrols and convoys," Bush said.

Bush's planned series of speeches comes at a time when more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed and support for his Iraq policy is at an all-time low. Recent polls have found more than 60 percent of respondents who say they disapprove of the policy, and the president's overall approval ratings are less than 40 percent.

These same surveys show that a growing number of Americans want to know when troops will be coming home. Bush said that time will come because of tangible progress in training Iraqi forces.

"As the Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop levels in Iraqi without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists," he said.

Bush's speech was repeatedly cheered by the Naval cadets, but the reaction from prominent opposition Democrats in Congress was less favorable.

Senator John Kerry (Democrat-Massachusetts), who unsuccessfully challenged Bush for the presidency a year ago, said most Iraqis resent the U.S. presence in their country. Therefore, he said, to begin withdrawing troops would help lessen the severity of the insurgency.

"In the end, the strategy for exit [from Iraq] is, in fact, part of the strategy of success. They go hand-in-hand, and that is a reality that the president and this administration need to understand," Kerry said.

Speaking with Kerry at the Capitol was another Democrat, Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island). He said Bush's speech sidestepped the concerns that Americans have about the war.

"Again, the president failed to answer the questions that all Americans are asking: How do we know if progress is being made there? How do we measure success? How much longer should America expect to be in Iraq? We understand that any type of redeployment is based upon the conditions on the ground, but we have to have a sense of how long it will take," Reed said.

Reed, long a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, visited Iraq last month and today specifically addressed what he called Bush's "over-optimistic" view of the quality of Iraq's security forces. According to Reed, these forces appear to be merely local militias in national uniforms. Given the ethnic strife among Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish factions, he said he is worried about who is giving them their orders.

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org