Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: The White House warned Monday that Iraqi forces may not be able to take over their country's security by November as planned, days before US lawmakers were to get a progress report on the war.
And while the Pentagon worked to lower expectations for that assessment, President George W. Bush battled mounting calls for US troop withdrawals amid a new Democratic assault on the war and an accelerating Republican rebellion.
The White House denied there was any new discussion of bringing US troops home and acknowledged that Iraq's often-criticized security forces may be unable to assume control of their war-torn country's security by November.
Asked whether that timeframe still held, Bush spokesman Tony Snow told reporters: “You mean on all the provinces? … I don't think we're probably going to get there, but I'm not sure.”
Snow pleaded for patience, pointing to progress reports expected this week and in September and saying: “If you're going to look for a November guess, I'd probably wait for the September report.”
Bush had set the timeframe in a January 10, 2007 speech unveiling his plans to send tens of thousands more US forces to Iraq in a bid to quell violence and improve the chances for political reconciliation.
“To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November,” the president had said in an address to the nation.
Bush now faces renewed pressure from congressional allies to defend his unpopular strategy in a new speech to the US public even as Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the July 15 Iraq progress report was merely “a snapshot.”
At the same time, Harry Reid, leader of the Democrat-led Senate, has rolled out a new bid to handcuff Bush's war powers, after the president prevailed in their last battle over Iraq policy in June.
“For those Senate Republicans who are saying the right things on Iraq, they must put their words into action by voting with us to change course and responsibly end this war,” Reid said Monday.
Respected Republican Senator John Warner, who could be the critical Republican player in the latest congressional showdown, asked senators to give Bush a chance to report on the troop surge strategy.
Warner, speaking Monday after White House meetings on Iraq, said he hoped Bush would find time to speak directly to Americans about the course of the war over the next week.
And US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday abruptly suspended a long-planned trip to Central and South America to attend policy meetings as the administration prepares the interim report.
“I don't think anyone would expect all the benchmarks to be made or achieved at the front end of the surge operations,” said Whitman, who would not say whether any of the benchmarks set by the US Congress had been met.
The troop increase began in February and peaked in June with the arrival of the last of five additional combat brigades to Iraq. There are currently about 159,000 US troops in Iraq.
Snow also denied a New York Times report that Bush aides had stepped up discussion of whether and how to withdraw US forces.
Calling the news account “way ahead of the facts,” Snow said that “the idea of trying to make a political judgment rather than a military judgment about how to have forces in the field is simply not true.”
Democrats were poised to make things even more uncomfortable with Bush later Monday by launching a two-week Senate debate on a defense policy bill, intended to force Republicans into politically dicey votes on the war.
The party previously failed to entice enough Republicans to piece together the 60-vote supermajority in the Senate they need to force Bush's hand.
But, in the wake of an especially bloody June in Iraq, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine told CNN Monday that US deaths and the failure of Iraq's leaders to take political steps needed to quell sectarian violence were hurting Bush's allies.
“You see a steady erosion for the president's policy,” she said.
Senators Richard Lugar, George Voinovich and Pete Domenici all called for a change of course in Iraq in recent weeks, though it appeared unlikely they would back any Democratic bid to bring troops home immediately.
