Hadley: Bush Open To Rumsfeld's Options

President Bush is open to some of the major changes in Iraq policy that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested in a classified memo days before he resigned, the White House's national security advisor said Sunday on Face The Nation.

The memo discussed putting "substantial" U.S. forces near Iraq's borders with Iran and Syria, withdrawing American troops from vulnerable positions and moving to a quick reaction status, and "taking our hand off the cycle seat" through the start of "modest withdrawals" of U.S. and coalition forces.

"The president made clear he wanted to open the aperture, really have a re-look and look at a variety of ideas," Bush adviser Stephen Hadley told Bob Schieffer. "And Secretary Rumsfeld, basically, was giving a list for consideration."

"The president has said things are not going well enough in Iraq, not going fast enough in Iraq – that is what is in the Rumsfeld memo," Hadley said. "And he has indicated that he is open to and wants to look at a full range of options for changing what we do and how we do it."

Hadley said later on ABC that he did not perceive Rumsfeld's memo as a late effort to save his job. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8, a day after Democrats swept to power in the midterm Congressional elections. Bush has nominated former CIA Director Robert Gates to take over at the Pentagon; his confirmation hearing is set for Tuesday in the Senate.

The administration is conducting a broad review of Iraq strategy and is awaiting the release Wednesday of recommendations from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan group of government advisers.

The president is "going to listen to the reviews that are being done by his agencies," Hadley said on Face The Nation.

As for the commission's upcoming report, Hadley said Bush wants to know what congressional leaders think of the recommendations.

"He's going to want to hear what Republicans and Democrats and the Congress think about. Then he's going to pull it together in terms of a way forward in Iraq that hopefully will command support from Republicans, Democrats, the executive branch and the Congress."

But Senators Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. – two in Congress from whom the president will need support – did not see Rumsfeld's leaked memo in a positive light.

"You can define the current state of play as civil war, chaos, crisis, anarchy, serious, you take your pick," Hagel said. "We have to have a reality check here. And memos being leaked and all of that – that's interesting Shakespearian drama, but bottom line is, if for no other reason, we need a policy worthy of the young men and women serving Iraq today. And we don't have one."

Lieberman, who appeared on Face The Nation with Hagel, said he did not know what to make of the revelation about Rumsfeld.

"The Rumsfeld memo itself is in many ways surprising," Liebrman said. "He raises possibilities of doing things such as redeploying our troops, which he has always said that he was against."

Lieberman suggested that perhaps Rumsfeld was making a last-ditch effort to save his job.

"Seeing as how the president said – when he announced the nomination of Bob Gates to replace Don Rumsfeld – that he and Rumsfeld had conversations about the possibility of this change in the two weeks preceding, you wonder whether Rumsfeld didn't get the message or he did get the message and this was his attempt to try to hold on to his job," he said.

Also Sunday, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq was asked if he agreed with Rumsfeld's recommendation that the U.S. greatly reduce its military presence in Iraq. The ambassador spoke on "Late Edition" on CNN.

"Strategically, over the long term, that is right thing to do. The question is whether in the current circumstances in the short term that is the right thing to do," Zalmay Khalilzad said.

But, Hadley told Schieffer that the June 2007 date set by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the Iraqi military to take over responsibility for security was not necessarily realistic.

"What Prime Minister Maliki laid out was steps that could be taken to accelerate the training, equipping, standing up of Iraqi security forces and the transition of responsibility to those forces. Those goals are ambitious," Hadley said. "Our men and women over there who are doing this work judge them to be ambitious, but we're going to try to do everything we can to try and help the Iraqi government achieve those goals."

"We would have liked to see more progress sooner," the ambassador said when asked about Rumsfeld's bleak assessment. "There are areas in which changes are important to look at to see if we could do better."

"In my view it is time for a major adjustment," Rumsfeld wrote in a Nov. 6 memo to the White House. "Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough."

Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff said he was not the New York Times's source for the leaked memo, but confirmed the memo's authenticity late Saturday.

"The formulation of these ideas evolved over a period of several weeks," Ruff said in a telephone interview.

He said the options presented in the paper were Rumsfeld's personal ideas developed in conversations with a variety of people, not part of a formal Pentagon review that also is under way. Rumsfeld had previously said publicly that he believed U.S. efforts in Iraq were not working well enough or fast enough, but he has not called for a "major adjustment" in the U.S. approach to stabilizing Iraq.

Ruff also emphasized that Rumsfeld does not endorse any one particular recommendation, and that he notes in the memo that "many of these options could and, in a number of cases, should be done in combination with others."

The president is under pressure to decide a new blueprint for U.S. involvement in Iraq. A bipartisan commission headed by James A. Baker III, a former Republican secretary of state and Bush family friend from Texas, and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana is to present its recommendations to Bush this week.

Before listing options for change — many of which are similar to various proposals by people in and out of government, including Democratic critics in Congress — Rumsfeld noted that the situation in Iraq "has been evolving" and said U.S. forces have adjusted from "major combat operations, to counterterrorism, to counterinsurgency, to dealing with death squads and sectarian violence."

Rumsfeld said the administration should "announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis. This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not `lose."'

At the end of his list of "above the line" preferred options, he recommended: "Recast the U.S. military mission and the U.S. goals (how we talk about them) — go minimalist."

Specifics on his options checklist:

-"Publicly announce a set of benchmarks agreed to by the Iraqi government and the U.S. ... to chart a path ahead for the Iraqi government and Iraqi people (to get them moving) and for the U.S. public (to reassure them that progress can and is being made)."

-"Significantly increase U.S. trainers and embeds, and transfer more U.S. equipment to Iraqi security forces."

-"Initiate a reverse embeds program ... by putting one or more Iraqi soldiers with every U.S. and possibly coalition squad."

-Aggressively beef up Iraqi ministries by reaching out to U.S. military retirees and Reserve and National Guard volunteers.

-Conduct an accelerated drawdown of U.S. bases, noting they have already been reduced from 110 to 55. "Plan to get down to 10 to 15 bases by April 2007, and to 5 bases by July 2007."

-"Retain high-end ... capability ... to target al Qaeda, death squads, and Iranians in Iraq, while drawing down all other coalition forces, except those necessary to provide certain key enablers" for Iraqi forces.

-Provide U.S. security forces "only for those provinces or cities that openly request U.S. help and that actively cooperate."

-Stop rewarding "bad behavior" with reconstruction funds and start rewarding "good behavior."

-"Position substantial U.S. forces near the Iranian and Syrian borders to reduce infiltration and, importantly, reduce Iranian influence on the Iraqi government."

-Withdraw U.S. forces from vulnerable positions and move to a quick reaction force status, operating from within Iraq and Kuwait, to be available when Iraqi security forces need assistance.

-"Begin modest withdrawals of U.S. and coalition forces (start `taking our hand off the cycle seat') so Iraqis know they have to pull up their socks, step up and take responsibility for their country."

Rumsfeld also listed a handful of "below the line" (less attractive) options that included continuing on the current path, moving a large fraction of all U.S. forces in Iraq into Baghdad, increasing U.S. forces substantially, setting a firm withdrawal date and pushing "an aggressive federalism plan" that would lead to three separate states — Sunni, Shia and Kurd.