Bush Says He'll Reconsider Iraq Tactics
President Bush acknowledged Friday that the situation in Iraq was tough and said he would consult with U.S. generals to see if a change in tactics was necessary to combat the escalating violence.
Seventy-four American troops have died in Iraq in October, which is likely to become the deadliest month for U.S. forces in nearly two years.
"There's a reason why the violence is increasing. One reason is that our ... coalition and Iraqi forces are focused on operations to bring security to Baghdad. In other words, we're on the move," Mr. Bush told a National Republican Senatorial Committee reception Friday.
The president told The Associated Press that he planned consultations with Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq.
"Our goal hasn't changed, but the tactics are constantly adjusting to an enemy which is brutal and violent," President Bush said told the Republican group.
Meanwhile, in a message to Iraq's government, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that "sooner rather than later," the Iraqis will have to take over their own country's security. The Pentagon chief added "it's their country" and that they have to "govern it" and "provide security."
The president says U.S. goals in Iraq remain the same: to have a country that can sustain itself, govern itself and help in the fight against terrorism.
"The president is not going to alter his approach based on political considerations, but instead on the business of trying and moving toward having an Iraq that can sustain, govern and defend itself," White House press secretary Tony Snow said earlier Friday, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. Snow added that political considerations don't win conflicts.
Later, Snow said the president would meet with the generals Saturday.
In other developments:
Meanwhile, The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.
Shiite militia violence, mainly against the country's Sunni minority, has ravaged Iraq since February, when a Shiite holy place in Samara was blown up. The violence has been on the increase, but this is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shiites against one another on such a scale.
The U.S. government believes forces loyal to al-Sadr are behind much of the violence in Iraq, especially that directed at Sunnis, reports . But the Washington Post reported recently that forces within his army may be breaking away from the command structure and forming smaller paramilitary groups, which may make them even harder to stop. Prime Minister al-Malaki this week sought al-Sadr's help in ending sectarian violence — but if the reports are true, al-Sadr may not have influence over some deadly militias.
That doesn't surprise experts.
"Iraq is not going to be the kind of stable democracy that we're used to in the United States, where local politics is pretty nasty but nobody brings out the guns," Patrick Clawson, a policy analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CBS Radio News. "Iraq's going to have a weak and fragile government. It's not going to have the kind of government that you see in Europe, and these fragile governments are going to face all kinds of challenges from powerful local groups that don't like who won the elections."
The events in Amarah highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, which have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.
Amarah, a major population center in the resource-rich yet impoverished south, is a traditional center of Shiite defiance to successive Iraqi regimes. Its famed marshlands were drained by former dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1990s in reprisal for the city's role in the Shiite uprising that blazed through the region after the 1991 Gulf War.
The city lies along the Tigris River just 30 miles from the border with Iran, whose Shiite-controlled government is accused of backing Iraqi militia groups suspected of involvement in sectarian killings now wracking the country.
The showdown between the Mahdi and Badr militias has the potential to develop into an all-out conflict between the heavily armed groups and their political sponsors, both with large blocs in parliament and backers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ruling coalition. It also could shatter the unity of Iraq's majority Shiites at a time when an enduring Sunni insurgency shows no signs of abating.