Bush Envisions Possible Troop Cutbacks

(CBS/AP)  President Bush raised the possibility Monday of U.S. troop cuts in Iraq if security continues to improve, traveling here secretly to assess the war before a showdown with Congress.

The president was joined by his war cabinet and military commanders at an unprecedented meeting in Iraq over eight hours at this dusty military base in the heart of Anbar province, 120 miles west of Baghdad.

Mr. Bush did not say how large a troop withdrawal might be possible or whether it might occur before next spring when the first of the additional 30,000 troops he ordered to Iraq this year are to start coming home anyway. He emphasized that any cut would depend upon progress.

After talks with Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commandeer in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Mr. Bush said they "tell me if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces."

"If we're able to redeploy at some point in time - I would hope so," Mr. Bush told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric in Iraq. "Because the stakes are very high. Failure in Iraq could be a disaster for the United States."

Couric traveled with Petraeus this week to Fallujah in Anbar province, once a stronghold of the insurgency, and reports the troop surge appears to have helped quell much of the violence there.

Mr. Bush's trip was a dramatic move to steal the thunder from the Democratic Congress as it returns to Washington with fresh hopes of ending the unpopular war, now in its fifth year. Petraeus and Crocker will testify before lawmakers next week, and then Mr. Bush will announce how he intends to proceed in Iraq.

"The president was laying down his marker today," says CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. "Congress comes back to Washington tomorrow demanding that he start withdrawing our troops from a very unpopular war."

The president thanked the 10,000 servicemen and -women, mostly Marines, stationed here in the sweltering 115-degree heat, reports Couric.

"What you're doing here is making this country safer and I thank you for your hard work," Mr. Bush said.

On Air Force One after leaving Iraq, Mr. Bush acknowledged that his comment about troop reductions had piqued interest. "Maybe I was intending to do that," the president said, sitting around a table with reporters in his plane's conference room as he flew to Australia to meet with Asia-Pacific leaders.

"If you look at my comments over the past eight months, it's gone from a security situation in the sense that we're either going to get out and there will be chaos, or more troops," the president said. "Now the situation has changed where I'm able to speculate on the hypothetical."

Still, Mr. Bush struck a defiant note about demands for bringing troops home.

Standing before troops cheering "hooah," Mr. Bush said decisions on force levels "will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground - not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media.

"In other words," Mr. Bush said, "when we begin to draw down troops from Iraq, it will be from a position of strength and success, not from a position of fear and failure."

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[moonbeam461]

BUSH:

A Canadian point of view...........You, the Americans have lost your way........and there will be serious consequences as a result.....Why did you let this happen....

[bareemperor]

Bu$h Lies to America again.

What do you bet they even scan the troops for weapons before they are allowed to share the photo-op with Dubya...

[libsluvsuvs]

to begin, lets knock out this idea about dictatorship..facisms..nazism..because it does not exist in this country..the upcoming election for 2008 is proof of that

***
every presidency had and has and will have its own defining moment and only time can judge if whatever decisions that were made are correct.

For Bush, his tenure at the white house will not be remembered by its decisios on abortion or same *** marriage but on his war on terrorism. He had endured a heavier weight than clinton, reagan or carter..because they were outside attacks.
What defined Carter and Clinton was thier failure TO STAND UP AND protect american lives when they were presented with that same gruelling task BUT THEY ALL BUCKLED UNDER THE PRESSURE OF CRITICISM. as far as I can see..Bush has not buckled.

[libsluvsuvs]

wow!!! amazing!!

is there anything that these whinney liberals would not complain about?????

we stay..they whine
we dont stay..they whine

I wonder if they would whine when bush leaves office..because they whine about him BEING in office.

[drummer94]

rp44_63: Daddy Bush has been conspiciously silent, hasn''t he? I guess if loony-toon was my kid I''d probably wouldn''t want to be assosiated with him either.

[j4401]

The Real Reason We''re In Iraq:
An influential group of conservatives convinced President George W. Bush that it was in America''s best interests to conquer Iraq as a first step toward dominating the oil-producing nations in the Middle East. There was no "exit plan" because we never intended to exit. The plan was, and is, to build military bases in Iraq and stay there forever. Our leaders see Iraq as a place to make money. So Bush & Co. have set up their friends to cash in on the rebuilding of Iraq.

[actornaught]

Polls show the vast majority of Iraqi''s want the US out, 65% immediately. AQI wants US troops to stay. Which side is w on?

[drinuk]

The Bush reference to Staying On and Getting the Job Done was a snide dig at UK''s Gordon Brown for pulling the UK force out of Basra. Surely his inept advisers have informed him that Brown is going to call an election very soon and sees this as a way of winning it. The British public want the boys home but whatever the outcome of the next election these lads will be sent straight out to Afghanistan to protect the "Poppies" Brown is smarter than Blair but just as devious.

[aaabee-2009]

Todays news:
"Report: Al Qaeda Plans New Iraq Offensive
Politicians, GIs Targeted, Islamic Web Site Says; Meanwhile, Iraq''s Parliament Heads Back To Work"

"Now the situation [in Iraq] has changed where I''m able to speculate on the hypothetical." President Bush today.

"President Bush vetoed a $124 billion Iraq war funding bill because it included a timetable to withdraw combat forces" President Bush, 4 months ago.

No Flip Flopping here

[realpatriot1]

radioB,

The democrats are looking for a slogan for 2008. The serenity prayer would make a good one!

Bush can see the hand-writing on the crumbling wall of republican Congressional support. He now wants to be on the head of the curve to stem the tide of republicans becoming "surrender-pubs" and joining in a bipartison redeployment compromise that would challenge his monarchy.

Events may once again get in the way. It''s not clear if the surge is "working" because the insurgents have left the occupied areas to lay low and wait for the right time to counter strike, or if security is actually being established in the effected areas in a manner that can be sustained by Iraqi troops. That'' after all, is the only way that the surge can actually be said to be working.

Even then, their are so many other areas not touched by the surge that can blow up at any time of the insurgents choosing. It''s a game of whack a mole. Now that the Brits have left the Shiite areas of southern Iraq where are the troops for that surge going to come from?

The lack of political progress in the vacationing Parliament has nothing to do with the security situation and everything to do with a national lack of will on the part of the Iraqis.

We can''t give them that.