WASHINGTON, 21 December 2006 — President George W. Bush yesterday warned Americans of the need for new “sacrifices” in Iraq next year, and said hard choices await in a war he now grimly admits the United States is not winning.
Bush said during his traditional year-end news conference that the US needs to increase the size of its armed forces, specifically the army and Marines, and added that the strategies in Iraq would change to meet the situation on the ground.
Bush also said the US would “ask more of our Iraqi partners” in 2007, and he pledged to work with the new Democratic Congress.
After admitting that insurgents in Iraq have impeded US efforts at “establishing security and stability throughout the country” this year, he avoided answering a question about whether troop numbers in Iraq would increase.
“Nice try,” he responded. Media speculation abounds that Bush will announce details about an increase in troops in Iraq — which includes extending tours of duty of current troops on the ground — until after the holiday season.
The Baker-Hamilton Commission has recommended a quick buildup of troops as part of an overall plan to arrest what it called a “grave and deteriorating” situation in Iraq.
The president spoke as his new Defense Secretary Robert Gates made his first visit to Iraq since being sworn in earlier in the week. Bush said he asked Gates to study ways to increase the size of US Army and the Marine Corps. “We have an obligation to ensure our military has the capacity to sustain this war over the long haul,” Bush said.
Bush’s comment were his most direct assessment that the US armed forces were facing a strain so serious that the nation should invest billions of dollars in expanding the military. After admitting to “a difficult year” for the American troops in Iraq in 2006, next year “it’s going to require additional choices and additional sacrifices,” Bush said. “We’re not succeeding as fast as I wanted.”
Bush’s call for a larger military is an about-face for an administration that was trying to shape a leaner force. Yesterday he said while he still favors a “lighter, agile” army, but the current threats may require more soldiers. How he intends to get these new troops, at a time when enlistment is down, he did not say.
Many within the military say it has been greatly stressed by fighting simultaneous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Colin Powell, a former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs as well as secretary of state, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Dec. 17 that the army is “about broken.”
According to a Pentagon report Dec. 18, violence in Iraq is at an all-time high.
Attacks on civilians and Iraqi and coalition forces averaged 960 a week between Aug. 12 and Nov. 10, with more than two-thirds of the violence directed at the coalition troops, the Pentagon said in its quarterly report on the conflict to Congress. Coalition casualties increased 32 percent compared with the previous quarter.
Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of US forces in the Middle East, has submitted plans to retire and will leave his post in March, a step likely to make way for a change in military strategy at a time when the Bush administration is seeking a new plan for Iraq, The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
Abizaid has been the primary architect of US military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan since becoming head of the US Central Command more than three years ago. He has strenuously resisted calls to increase troop levels to quell rising violence in Baghdad, arguing it would increase Iraqi dependence on Americans.
Bush also said the United States supports the creation of a unity government in Iraq.
Bush also explained a striking shift in position — his statement on Tuesday that the United States is neither winning nor losing in Iraq, contrasted with his insistence at a recent news conference that it was “absolutely winning.”
He said his earlier comments were meant to say that, “I believe that we’re going to win, I believe that...My comments yesterday reflected the fact that we’re not succeeding nearly as fast as I had wanted.”
