At Weekend Summit, Bush Remains Firm on Iraq
Oct. 21, 2006 — -- President Bush gathered top generals and advisors at the White House to review the situation in Iraq this morning, as one of the deadliest months for U.S. troops there nears an end and midterm congressional elections approach at home.
Senior administration officials told ABC News the 90-minute meeting in the Roosevelt Room is not likely to produce any major changes in the U.S. battle plan -- only minor adjustments.
Seated with Bush at a conference table were Army Gen. John Abizaid, who commands U.S. military operations in the Middle East; Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and David Satterfield, the No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Vice President Cheney and Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, participated by videoconference.
After Bush headed for his usual Saturday morning bike ride, other participants, including Rumsfeld, Abizaid and Pace, remained for about 30 minutes. The president also met with Abizaid for a half-hour on Friday.
Officials Say Meeting Is Not Unusual
Administration officials portrayed the session as a routine, periodic update.
"I wouldn't read into this somehow that there is a full-scale push for a major re-evaluation," Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told reporters as she traveled in Asia to met with regional leaders about the North Korea nuclear crisis.
"They are always looking at what course we're on," she said, "whether or not it's working, what's working and what isn't working."
The meeting came the day after a militia connected to an anti-American Shiite cleric briefly seized control of Amara, a major city in southeastern Iraq that coalition forces had turned over to the Iraqis in August.
So far this month, at least 78 American troops have died as the result of hostilities, putting October on track to be one of the deadliest months in nearly two years.
Some in the administration seem to be losing patience with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki.
"He's a leader, and we expect him to lead," Satterfield told ABC's "Good Morning America." "He and his colleagues in the Iraqi government and the political leadership of Iraq have to take the lead in confronting these challenges."
As Democrats increasingly believe they could be poised to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress in elections about two weeks away, they are making Iraq a major campaign issue.
"The leaders in Washington trouble me because they fail to admit their mistakes" on Iraq, said Diane Farrell, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., said in her party's weekly radio address. "Instead of looking at the situation on the ground and making choices, they bury their heads in the sand and hope for the best. … The president and the Republican Congress have been wrong on Iraq and wrong to keep to their failed strategy."
Pressure is building from within the president's own party, too. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, who is expected to easily win re-election this year, said in a campaign debate this week that she would have voted against the war if she had known that Bush's claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were not true.
In his weekly radio message, President Bush said he would not be swayed from his goal in Iraq of "victory. What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal. … We have a strategy that allows us to be flexible and to adapt to changing circumstances."
He made clear that pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq is not an option.
"Retreating from Iraq would allow the terrorists to gain a new safe haven from which to launch new attacks on America," he said. "Retreating from Iraq would dishonor the men and women who have given their lives in that country and mean their sacrifice has been in vain."