Bush To Pressure Iraq Government

As part of his new plan for Iraq that he will outline to the American people tonight, President Bush will make it clear that his patience with the Iraqi government is not unlimited and that it must perform.

"I have made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended," Mr. Bush said in remarks prepared for tonight's speech. "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people – and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this."

White House officials say the main thing the Iraqi government needs to understand is that it could lose its primary benefactor — President Bush — if it doesn't pick up its share of the burden.

According to a White House fact sheet, Mr. Bush will call on the Iraqi government to intensify efforts to build balanced security forces throughout the nation that provide security even-handedly for all Iraqis. He will also call for planning and funding for a program aimed at eventually demobilizing militias.

Mr. Bush will tell a nation weary of war that he is sending 21,500 more Americans to Iraq, arguing it has been a mistake not to commit larger numbers of U.S and Iraqi troops to stabilize the country.

The move will force the administration to extend the tours of duty for many troops in Iraq by two to four months, according to White House officials.

There is a sense at the White House that it's no longer about finding the right words to win support for the troop buildup, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports. One adviser said, "I'm not worried about the speech. I'm worried about the plan."

In the briefing for network anchors, officials said it may also require calling some reservists and members of the National Guard to active duty, CBS News Anchor Katie Couric and chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer report.

Democrats pledged to confront Mr. Bush over the troop escalation, which is set to begin next week.

Unveiling his retooled war strategy in a pivotal prime-time address from the White House, the president will acknowledge in unusually stark terms how dire the situation is — because of errors in U.S. assumptions and failures by the government in Iraq to follow through on promises.

"A vast majority of the American people are not satisfied with the progress in Iraq," White House counselor Dan Bartlett told CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "President Bush is in their camp. He's not satisfied. He's going to say the strategy was not working; he's going to tell them specifically how we're going to fix the strategy."

CBS News will broadcast the address tonight live beginning at 9 p.m. EST.

The United States is changing its goals, switching from a focus on training Iraqi security forces to securing the battered population and targeting economic aid toward seats of the worst violence.

Under Mr. Bush's plan, Baghdad will be divided into nine districts, and a battalion of American combat troops – about 800 soldiers – will be sent into each one to operate with Iraqi forces, clearing out insurgents and death squads, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. Unlike previous operations, the American troops will stay in the neighborhoods until reconstruction teams can restore water and electricity and put unemployed Iraqis back to work.

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, is putting the onus on the Iraqis to meet their responsibilities and take the lead in the fighting, but without the threat of specific consequences if they do not.

"The Iraqis have to step up," Bartlett said.

Bartlett said that the rules of the past, where for instance U.S. forces in Baghdad "sometimes were handcuffed by political interference by the Iraqi leadership," must end.

"They (the Iraqis) are going to have more boots on the ground," he said. "They're going to be the ones doing the knocking on the door."

Democrats, emboldened by November elections that put them in charge on Capitol Hill in part over the war, laid plans to register their opposition to the troop buildup.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would call a vote on the increase, trying to isolate Mr. Bush and put Republicans on the spot. Democratic leaders in the Senate also said they would schedule a debate next week on a symbolic measure expressing opposition.

"American voters expect us to help get us out of Iraq," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a 2008 presidential hopeful and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that heard independent experts on Iraq.

Republicans, too, were restless. "I do not want to embarrass the president, but I do not support a surge" in troops, said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who said he had told Mr. Bush as much last week.

The president faces a tough and skeptical audience: According to a recent CBS News poll, just 23 percent approve of his handling of the war, while 72 percent disapprove.

In his speech, Mr. Bush was to acknowledge a long and worsened list of problems in Iraq: the government's capabilities still are limited, sectarian divisions have widened, members of Iraqi security forces are contributing to the violence and suffer from high absenteeism, fighting in Baghdad between Shiites and Sunnis has increased and is influencing the rest of the country, essential services still are lacking, Iraqi support for the U.S. is declining, and Iraqis — while committed to a unified country — are increasingly turning from the central government to pursue more narrow sectarian agendas to hedge their bets.

The president is arguing that a gradual increase in U.S. troops, opposed by some key military leaders as a potentially ineffective strain on the armed forces, is the answer — along with pumping an extra $1 billion into Iraq's faltering economy.

His justification rests in part on the conclusion that while Iraqis must take responsibility for ending sectarian fighting, they don't have the resources to do it alone. The White House is confident al-Maliki is better able to follow through on promises of the kind that have been made before and never kept.

A breakdown of the additional troops was provided by a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the increase has not been officially announced:

Mr. Bush is committing 17,500 U.S. combat troops to Baghdad. The first of five brigades will arrive by next Monday. The next is to arrive by Feb. 15, and the reminder will come in 30-day increments.

The president is committing 4,000 more Marines to Anbar Province, a base of the Sunni insurgency and foreign al Qaeda fighters.

The Iraqis are committing three brigades for Baghdad, the first to be delivered on Feb. 1. Two more will arrive on Feb. 15.

Pentagon officials expect U.S. troops to stay in the streets for about six months before they turn security over to the Iraqis, Martin reports. If it hasn't happened in six months, one official said that we'll know the plan isn't working.

Al-Maliki has assured Mr. Bush that Shiite militias that have been terrorizing the Sunni minority in Baghdad will not be immune. "This is going to be an operation in Baghdad that will make no difference between Shiite, Sunni or other types of illegal militia or illegal activity," Bartlett said.

Mr. Bush will link the U.S. troop infusion to other steps by the Shiite-led Iraqi government, such as enacting a plan to distribute oil revenue to all the country's sects, easing restrictions on government posts for Sunni members of deposed leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and committing $10 billion of its own money for reconstruction.

The White House anticipates that stability in Baghdad can be achieved by summer, so that U.S. troops will be able to pull back to areas outside the capital. Iraqis were expected to be in control of security in all 18 of Iraq's provinces by November, the official said.

The president is ignoring a key recommendation of the bipartisan, independent Iraq Study Group, that he solicit help from Syria and Iran, the official said. Instead, he will call for increased operations against nations meddling in Iraq, aimed at Iran and, to a lesser degree, Syria.

Among other steps by the United States are a doubling of an existing reconstruction program focused on helping communities outside the international zone in Baghdad and a call for friendly Mideast nations to increase support for Iraq.

The president's address is the centerpiece of an aggressive public relations campaign that also includes detailed briefings for lawmakers and a series of appearances by Mr. Bush starting with a trip Thursday to Fort Benning, Ga. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Mideast a day after appearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at Democratically convened Iraq hearings on Thursday.

While Mr. Bush considered his options over nearly three months, the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq passed 3,000, and Saddam was hanged for atrocities committed under his leadership.