WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2006
Bush Adviser: Iraq Must 'Step Up'
White House Aide Deflects Criticism; Democratic Senator: Iraq Needs 'Radical Change'
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Play CBS Video Video Adviser Defends Iraq Strategy Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, speaks with Hannah Storm and defends military strategy in Iraq despite a bloody October.
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Video Biden On Iraq Strategy Democrats in Washington are declaring that changes in strategy in Iraq are long overdue. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks with Harry Smith about U.S. strategy.
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Video A Deadly October In Iraq As Ramadan comes to a close, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports October is the deadliest month this year for U.S. forces in Iraq.
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Bipartisan pressure in Washington is mounting over Iraq's fledgling security forces. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
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Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
At the same time, Dan Bartlett denied in a television interview that the Bush administration's war policy has been a sweeping "stay the course" commitment.
Senior members of Mr. Bush's national security team attended White House meetings Monday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, just back Asia and Russia, was first to show up. She was followed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As pre-election pressure mounts from congressional Democrats and Republicans, a new report suggests the White House is drafting a timetable that calls for the Iraqi government to assume more responsibility for security in the war-torn country.
The report in Sunday's New York Times said the head of the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq were working on a plan that probably would — for the first time — outline milestones for disarming sectarian militias and meeting other political and economic goals.
Bartlett dismissed the Times article, saying, "I was puzzled by the report over the weekend because it was stating something we have been talking about publicly for months." He told CBS Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm that the U.S. policy in Iraq is not a "stay the course strategy." Bartlett added, "We aren't sitting there with our heads in the sand. We are completely changing on a week-by-week basis."
The White House earlier had said the report in Sunday's editions of the Times was not accurate. Bartlett said he thought it "might have been overwritten."
"The enemy we're fighting is a very determined one. They're very lethal. ... But we are going to prevail and it's going to require the Iraqis themselves to step up and take more responsibility, and that's something we'll be impressing on them in the weeks and months ahead," Bartlett said.
Appearing after Bartlett on The Early Show, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., told co-anchor Harry Smith, "I was amazed by Dan Bartlett's comments that we have always been flexible. They still talk about this being a war against terrorists. It's a civil war." Biden added, "We need a radical change."
Biden, who is the senior Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was adamant that the United States needs to push Iraq to intensify its security forces and reach a political settlement with its sectarian factions. "Last time I said that, the president said we can't tell the Iraqis what to do. Like heck we can't tell the Iraqis what to do. It's our blood and treasure. We told them what to do with the constitution. We should tell them straight up now: 'Get a preliminary settlement or you are on your own, Jack.'"
Biden said the time is coming when the American public will no longer tolerate lives and money "being poured down a rathole because, in fact, we're in the middle of a civil war."
In other related developments:
Also Monday, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh urged international forces to remain even in the face of the violence, saying it was no time to panic.
"I have to say, because there is too much of a pessimistic tone to this debate even I would say in certain circles a defeatist tone," Saleh told the British Broadcasting Corp. before meeting in London with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Meanwhile, a day after his remarks in an interview were broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Alberto Fernandez issued a written apology Sunday through the State Department press office.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
"This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department," Fernandez added. "I apologize."
U.S. officials had sought to play down Fernandez' assessment of the security situation in Iraq.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Friday that Fernandez said after the broadcast he didn't think reports of his comments were an "accurate reflection of what he said." Asked whether the Bush administration believed that history will show a record of arrogance or stupidity in Iraq, McCormack replied, "No."
Fernandez spoke in fluent Arabic in the interview, which Al-Jazeera said was taped in Washington on Friday.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 168 Comments
- and the insurgents are defeating their own purpose. Their purpose according to them is to get us to leave. I mean, what part don't they understand. As soon as it is secure enough for us to leave---we will-----so they continue their violence----they are in fact defeating their whole purpose. Okay, I mean DUH!!!!
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- you would think the iraqi people would take some sort of initiative and be agressive in getting these people in stopping the violence. All I hear on the news is how they (the iraqi people) want us to leave. If that is the case---well the sooner they can get their *** together---the sooner we can leave. What do you think, Iraqis???? Sounds logical to me.
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- DEMOCRATS----you all are complaints and NO ACTION----quit complaining if all you can do is sit behind your computers!
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- Hey maybe I do deserve a metal---I mean I don't see a *** load of americans doing what i did----well except maybe for the spanish americans---at least the spanish americans know how to get out there and protest (even though i don't agree with them most of the time)---at least they know how to come together by the thousands when they protest. The democrats could never rally together that kind of support---they just don't have it in them----well except to hide behind their computers I guess where they don't have to get up from their chair
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- Someone please give laurieleemoo a medal for being one of only 300 people who noticed and did anything about the 2000 election fiasco. And now back to the current article.
"The heads of states must be treated as such and the feelings and thoughts of the citizens must be respected. All too often, including North Korea, it reverts to showing respect. "
I agree. There is definitely a point where those heads of state must be held accountable. - Reply to this comment
- jjasonham----oh yeah, it was a national fight? and there were protestors around the country? ----that one must have surely slipped by the media---cause they did not show any of that on tv. Oh, and I certainly did not see you people coming in by the busloads to help like the republicans did did for their local republicans! All these protestors everywhere? Wow-----THEN WHY WAS I ONE OF ONLY 300.----tell me that!
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- Laurieleemoo & jasonham: There's a bible adage that fits here: "...and the truth shall set you free."
Meeboard: I agree with you but add one item to your thought. The west has to abandon their colonialist attitude. The middle east was divided up by the French and English with their superiority of that day. It is not going to work again today with Junebug and his gang.
The heads of states must be treated as such and the feelings and thoughts of the citizens must be respected. All too often, including North Korea, it reverts to showing respect. - Reply to this comment
- Sorry, but if Iraq hasn't stepped up yet, do ya really think it's gonna happen? Come on now.
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- Believe me, laurieleemoo, my feelings were definitely not hurt. I also never said what happened to you didn't happen, which would cancel out the idea that I thought you lied. The "hateful" comments I have seen you write led me to the conclusion that you are "hateful".
hateful
%u2013adjective 1. arousing hate or deserving to be hated: the hateful oppression of dictators.
2. unpleasant; dislikable; distasteful: She found her domestic chores hateful.
3. full of or expressing hate; malignant; malevolent: a hateful denunciatory speech.
I'm referring more to 2 and 3 in your case. Logic, facts, conclusions...very easy. - Reply to this comment
- And how exactly has the actions taken in my life had an effect on world affairs? The government is not some lifeless entity. People are elected to run it. And if by blaming the government you mean, I hold them accountable, then guilty as charged.
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- okay---well got to go---see you all later---at lunch
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- I'm very sorry the truth seems to hurt you.. There is nothing i can do about that. Oh and please enlighten me. What did I say that was hateful---you mean the facts which happened to me and no amount of liberal spin can take away?
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- "I do not hang out with HATEFUL people either!!!!"
There is a saying that you are sum of the people you hang around. Right now, you're doing a heck of a job convincing me you aren't hateful. - Reply to this comment
- I also like people who take responsibility for their own lives and not try to blame our government for EVERYTHING!
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- " I did not want him to quit UNTIL WE TOOK IT AS FAR AS WE POSSIBLY COULD. Thats all I was asking for-----A BETTER FIGHT THAN HE GAVE. He quit on me and I can not stand a quitter. "
You seemed to have taken this very personally. Such a situation could not possibly have completely flipped your ideologies. It's all completely subjective. There really is more to politics than "fighting" and "quitting". - Reply to this comment
- make some sense---i just told my story---the facts---LIKE IT OR NOT----Its reality---A TRUE STORY---MY STORY. I can only tell you my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with the democrats. Take from it what you will. It does not make sense FOR ME---to hang with the quitters and the lazy people who can't get up of their ***** to protest when they need to. I do not hang out with HATEFUL people either!!!!
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- I started out as a young Republican--voted for Reagan, voted for Bush Sr. Then boom...it hit me. These a-holes are non-inclusive. You have to be a WASP or they don't want you (and I'm a WASP). I want a party that's open to everyone. A party that moves all of us ahead...not just the wealthy...not just the WASPs...not just the straights. A party where everyone has a place at the table. And that's why I'm now a Democrat.
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- "laurieleemoo: "i will now be a republican for the rest of my entire life---they are my kind of people.""
Makes sense, because that same mentality is what currently has us embroiled in a conflict that is going to be hell to deal with. - Reply to this comment
- look--he had one more appeal he could have gone through in the courts and HE DID NOT. There was also the problem with the Butterly ballot in West Palm Beach-----he did not put his heart into fighting that----that Butterfly ballot, I am telling you---it could have been fought---and that would have been another 40,OOO VOTES FOR AL GORE---If they had counted those votes---HE WOULD HAVE WON. I did not want him to quit UNTIL WE TOOK IT AS FAR AS WE POSSIBLY COULD. Thats all I was asking for-----A BETTER FIGHT THAN HE GAVE. He quit on me and I can not stand a quitter.
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- "laurieleemoo, what exactly did you expect them to do after the Supreme Court ruled? Guns in the streets? Overthrough the government? What?! "
So true. - Reply to this comment
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