Bush Presses Ahead On Iraq Plan
President Bush defended a revised Iraq war spending bill even as a new CBS News/New York Times poll showed that 76 percent of Americans think the war is going somewhat or very badly.
During a Rose Garden news conference Thursday, Mr. Bush addressed the unpopular war and the relentless violence.
The president expressed satisfaction with the new Iraq bill, which the House of Representatives approved Thursday night that does not include a timetable for troop withdrawal, adding that the bill "also reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real process in return for America's continued support."
Resolute as he appeared, the president hinted strongly at a backup "Plan B," reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. Modeled on last year's Baker-Hamilton report, it would call for more regional diplomatic contact, as well as a drawdown and repurposing of U.S. troops away from policing sectarian violence.
It's the same plan Mr. Bush largely ignored when it was first published last December, Axelrod reports.
The Senate, trying to leave town by week's end for a Memorial Day holiday, was to vote on the $120 billion bill to keep military operations afloat through September.
The reformed legislation does not set the deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals many Democrats wanted. Unable to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to override one presidential veto because of such a deadline — or the threat of another — Democratic leaders announced Tuesday they would proceed to provide money for the war anyway because they wanted to support the troops.
Despite giving in to the president on timetables, some Democrats in Congress told Axelrod they will revisit the issue again this summer.
The legislation would help to pay for the president's recent troop buildup designed to secure Baghdad and other volatile areas. "This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy," Mr. Bush said. He said the last five brigades — about 15,000 troops — of his buildup are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad next month.
"We are going to expect heavy fighting in the next weeks and months and we can expect American and Iraqi casualties," Mr. Bush said.
The president also said that the strategy he is now following includes many of the recommendations issued last December by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana — recommendations at first generally ignored by the administration.
Mr. Bush's meeting with reporters was his first full-blown news conference since April 3.
The president testily responded to a question about whether he was still a credible voice in the war on terror.
"I'm credible because I read the intelligence," he said, adding I "make it abundantly clear in plain terms that if we let up, we'll be attacked."
"It's better to fight them there than here," Mr. Bush said.
That argument may have political clout, but it also represents a striking retreat from the original case for the war, says CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield.
Gone are the assertions that a democratic, stable Iraq would spread liberty and stability throughout the region. Instead of arguing for the good things that would happen if America acts, the argument is now based on the dreadful things that would happen if America leaves, Greenfield says.
Only On The Web: Jim Hoge, editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, talks with Jeff Greenfield about the likelihood of a major al Qaeda attack on American soil. Meanwhile, the president plugged the immigration proposal that his administration negotiated with Senate leaders of both parties. The legislation faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, let alone the House.
"It's a difficult piece of legislation and those who are looking to find fault with this bill will always be able to find something. But if you're serious about securing our borders, and bringing millions of illegal immigrants in this country out of the shadows, this bipartisan bill is the best opportunity to move forward," he said.
Still, Republicans and Democrats placed strict new conditions on the immigration measure on Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly to slash the number of foreign workers who could come to the U.S. on temporary visas, capping the guest-worker program at 200,000 a year.
The bill is "a comprehensive compromise that just about nobody loves," reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, who adds that Mr. Bush's coalition is "very fragile."
President Bush also said he would work with allies to beef up sanctions on Iran after a new U.N. report showing that Tehran is accelerating its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international demands.
"We need to strengthen our sanctions regime," Mr. Bush said. Leaders of Iran "continue to be defiant as to the demands of the free world," he said.
The president said he had directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work with European partners to "develop further sanctions."