Bush hints at Iraq troop drawdown

FE Team | Published: September 06, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

SYDNEY, Sept 5 (AFP): US President George W. Bush, flanked by his staunchest war ally, said Wednesday he saw enough progress in Iraq that he may soon be able to announce a partial US troop withdrawal.
Standing next to Australian Prime Minister John Howard-one of his last big "coalition of the willing" allies in Iraq-
Bush vowed to "hang in there" while the war-ravaged country builds itself up.
In a joint news conference with Howard, Bush also condemned Myanmar's junta for cracking down on street protests, saying "it's inexcusable that we've got this kind of tyrannical behaviour in Asia."
Their talks-ahead of a weekend summit of Asia-Pacific leaders-swung from Iraq to the Middle East peace process, the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, and trade and climate change.
But it was Iraq that dominated, with the president hinting at a troop reduction for the second time in the few days since his surprise visit there on Monday.
"If conditions still improve, security conditions still improve, the way they have been improving," he said in Sydney, "we may be able to provide the same security with fewer troops."
He declined to say whether any withdrawal would be part of his new strategy following a key progress report on the war to US lawmakers next week.
White House aides said they expected Bush to brief the war-weary US public on around September 15 on a possible new direction in the unpopular conflict.
His comments on progress-which he has said would be the only reason to reduce troop levels in Iraq-coincide with US military officials saying the strain on frontline US forces means numbers must be reduced from the current 162,000.
But Bush and Howard, who is trailing opposition leader and Iraq war critic Kevin Rudd in polls with an election expected in Australia by year's end, rejected pressure to set a timetable to bring home troops.
Meanwhile, Iraq war commander General David Petraeus also hinted at US troop cuts there by March, setting the stage for his pivotal testimony next week before Congress on President George W. Bush's surge strategy.
"There are limits to what our military can provide, so, my recommendations have to be informed by-not driven by-but they have to be informed by the strain we have put on our military services," Petraeus told ABC News Tuesday.
Asked if the current 162,000-strong US presence in Iraq could be drawn down by March 2008, the general said in an interview in Baghdad: "your calculations are about right."
But Petraeus said that while troops could be scaled back over the "long-term," he foresaw a "traditional counter-insurgency" that could last a decade.
The intervention by Petraeus came as political wrangling over the war intestified, after lawmakers returned from a summer break, for a crucial 10-day span packed with reports and testimony on the state of the war.
A Government Accoun-tability Office (GAO) report said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's administration had failed to meet 11 out of 18 political and security benchmarks, despite the surge designed to offer space for it to act.
Democrats seized upon the report as ammunition for demands to start bringing more than 160,000 soldiers home from a war which has killed more than 3,700 of their comrades and tens of thousands of civilians.
But the White House questioned the findings of the GAO report, and said Petraeus's testimony next week would give a more accurate picture.