11-18-2008, 12:35 AM
Published: Monday November 17, 2008
President George W. Bush appears to have had to climb down from his long-held opposition to an unconditional troop withdrawal from Iraq, a move which Barack Obama will likely speed up.
As the Iraqi parliament Monday began debating a US-Iraq military deal approved Sunday by the Iraqi cabinet, the White House sought to put a positive spin on the pace.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged that Washington had had to make some compromises with the Iraqi government on the future of US troops in the Iraq.
And she admitted the whole pact could be reviewed once president-elect Barack Obama takes over from President George W. Bush in the White House on January 20.
But she told reporters: "We just keep getting success after success on the security front in Iraq.
"We have been able to reach this point because of the vision that the president had in sending more troops to Iraq, which was one of the most unpopular decisions that any president could have made if you think about what we were going through at the time in Iraq," she said, referring to Bush's surge strategy of sending in some 30,000 extra troops.
"But it has worked. And the Iraqis are now able to see a path where they can govern, sustain and defend themselves, which is -- which was our test for them."
Bush had long opposed setting any timetable for the withdrawal of troops, saying the Iraqis would first have to be able to govern themselves.
"Our answer is, there should be no definitive timetable; there ought to be obviously a desire to reduce our presence, but it's got to be based upon success," he said in June.
"We'll be making our decisions based upon the conditions on the ground, the recommendation of our commanders, without an artificial timetable set by politics."
The Bush presidency has been indelibly scarred by the Iraq war, from the 2003 invasion spurred by false allegations that late dictator Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction, to the abuses by US troops of Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib jail, to the bloody insurgent uprising.
Some 4,200 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, in war which has also cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars.
Despite huge public opposition to the war and the Republican Party's emphatic defeat in the 2006 congressional mid-term elections, Bush resisted efforts to bring back the troops.
The war was also a dominant theme of the 2008 White House race, with president-elect Obama vowing to bring home the forces within 16 months.
But with the UN mandate allowing the presence of international forces in Iraq set to expire on December 31, 2008, Washington and Baghdad had to open talks on an accord to govern their future presence.
The text, now due to be adopted by the Iraqi parliament, sets out that US forces will leave the country by December 31, 2011 -- more than eight years after the March 2003 invasion -- whatever the conditions on the ground.
Asked about the timing, Perino said the dates were "firm."
The US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen said on Monday however that he believed the withdrawal should depend on the situation on the ground.
"I do think it is important that this be conditions-based," Mullen told reporters.
As expected Obama's incoming administration now inherits the huge task of ending a war launched by his predecessor and bringing home the 150,000 troops.
Obama told the CBS program "60 Minutes" on Sunday he would keep his word.
"As soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops," he said.
Perino acknowledged that Obama could speed up the withdrawal.
"This agreement doesn't mean that a future president, the president-elect, would not be able to change this agreement later on if he saw fit or if the Iraqis saw fit," she said.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iraq_war_se...72008.html
President George W. Bush appears to have had to climb down from his long-held opposition to an unconditional troop withdrawal from Iraq, a move which Barack Obama will likely speed up.
As the Iraqi parliament Monday began debating a US-Iraq military deal approved Sunday by the Iraqi cabinet, the White House sought to put a positive spin on the pace.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged that Washington had had to make some compromises with the Iraqi government on the future of US troops in the Iraq.
And she admitted the whole pact could be reviewed once president-elect Barack Obama takes over from President George W. Bush in the White House on January 20.
But she told reporters: "We just keep getting success after success on the security front in Iraq.
"We have been able to reach this point because of the vision that the president had in sending more troops to Iraq, which was one of the most unpopular decisions that any president could have made if you think about what we were going through at the time in Iraq," she said, referring to Bush's surge strategy of sending in some 30,000 extra troops.
"But it has worked. And the Iraqis are now able to see a path where they can govern, sustain and defend themselves, which is -- which was our test for them."
Bush had long opposed setting any timetable for the withdrawal of troops, saying the Iraqis would first have to be able to govern themselves.
"Our answer is, there should be no definitive timetable; there ought to be obviously a desire to reduce our presence, but it's got to be based upon success," he said in June.
"We'll be making our decisions based upon the conditions on the ground, the recommendation of our commanders, without an artificial timetable set by politics."
The Bush presidency has been indelibly scarred by the Iraq war, from the 2003 invasion spurred by false allegations that late dictator Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction, to the abuses by US troops of Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib jail, to the bloody insurgent uprising.
Some 4,200 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, in war which has also cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars.
Despite huge public opposition to the war and the Republican Party's emphatic defeat in the 2006 congressional mid-term elections, Bush resisted efforts to bring back the troops.
The war was also a dominant theme of the 2008 White House race, with president-elect Obama vowing to bring home the forces within 16 months.
But with the UN mandate allowing the presence of international forces in Iraq set to expire on December 31, 2008, Washington and Baghdad had to open talks on an accord to govern their future presence.
The text, now due to be adopted by the Iraqi parliament, sets out that US forces will leave the country by December 31, 2011 -- more than eight years after the March 2003 invasion -- whatever the conditions on the ground.
Asked about the timing, Perino said the dates were "firm."
The US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen said on Monday however that he believed the withdrawal should depend on the situation on the ground.
"I do think it is important that this be conditions-based," Mullen told reporters.
As expected Obama's incoming administration now inherits the huge task of ending a war launched by his predecessor and bringing home the 150,000 troops.
Obama told the CBS program "60 Minutes" on Sunday he would keep his word.
"As soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops," he said.
Perino acknowledged that Obama could speed up the withdrawal.
"This agreement doesn't mean that a future president, the president-elect, would not be able to change this agreement later on if he saw fit or if the Iraqis saw fit," she said.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iraq_war_se...72008.html