13 December 2006
Bush Discusses Iraq Policy Changes with Pentagon Chiefs
New Iraq policy proposals expected from president in early 2007
Washington –- President Bush continued his series of Iraq policy discussions with senior advisers December 13, meeting with key Pentagon officials for what he called a “candid and fruitful” discussion about how to achieve security in Iraq.
“There's a lot of consultations taking place, and as I announced yesterday, I will be delivering my plans after a long deliberation, after steady deliberation. I'm not going to be rushed into making a difficult decision,” Bush said after the meeting.
Participants in the meeting included Joint Chiefs Chairman General Peter Pace, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The president already has met with key State Department officials and has spoken with Iraqi leaders from the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities over the past two weeks. (See related article.)
“I want to make sure I continue to collect those ideas and put them together in a strategy that our military and the commanders and our national security team understand will lead to an Iraq that can govern and sustain and defend itself,” he said.
Bush said he would not announce his Iraq policy decision until incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates has had time to settle into his job and contribute to the deliberations. Gates is scheduled to be sworn in December 18.
The president said the U.S. military “cannot do this job alone.” He said success in Iraq depends on progress in the political sphere, particularly the passage of a hydrocarbons law and adoption of a national reconciliation program. He added that there must be economic progress “so that people see the benefits of either working with coalition forces, and/or the benefits of supporting a government.”
He also said the United States must cultivate support among Iraq’s neighbors. “[W]e spend a lot of time in our government talking to people like Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Jordan or Turkey and sending messages, clear messages, to countries like Syria and Iran,” he said.
Bush warned that failure to stabilize Iraq would have dire consequences for the region. “It would certainly make it more likely that moderate people around the Middle East would wonder about the United States' will. ... [M]oderate governments in the Middle East would be making irrational decisions about their future. It would be a disaster for governments that have got energy resources to be in the hands of these extremists,” he said.
Bush is expected to present new policy proposals for Iraq early in 2007.
A transcript of Bush’s remarks is available on the White House Web site.
For more on U.S. policies, see Iraq Update.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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