Bush defends Iraq strategy
2007-07-14 07:09
Washington - President George W Bush highlighted rebuilding efforts in Iraq on Friday as he fought to buy time for his unpopular strategy after a grim progress report and renewed attacks from the US Congress.
A day after the House of Representatives voted to withdraw most US combat troops by April, Bush held a videoconference with top military aides in Baghdad and Washington to hammer home his point that the war can, and must, be won.
"What happens in Iraq matters to the US. A violent, chaotic Iraq will affect our security at home," he said as he heaped praise on US teams working to provide basic services in the strife-torn country.
While he spoke, the aides sitting around the conference table at the White House, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairperson General Peter Pace, sat with worn expressions.
'I grant you it's not a lot of time'
And Bush, who has vowed to veto any legislation mandating what he calls a hasty troop withdrawal, also underlined that "there's still a lot of work to be done", just eight weeks before the deadline for a second progress report.
The first report, made public on Thursday, showed the Iraqi government making "satisfactory" progress on just eight of 18 political and security benchmarks set by Congress, with barely 60 days before the next assessment.
"I grant you it's not a lot of time," said White House spokesperson Dana Perino. "We're under no illusion. We're very clear-eyed about the fact that we have a lot of work to do, to continue to talk to members of Congress."
"You do have people who, on Capitol Hill, who are wanting to pull the plug on the surge as it's just getting underway. And the president is saying, 'let's give it a little bit more time to work'", she said.
The spokesperson also noted that the Democrats lacked the two-thirds majority to override a Bush veto.
'You would give it a failing grade'
And Perino emphasised that House Republicans had, with few exceptions, sided with the White House in Thursday's vote - even as increasing numbers of the party's heavyweights in the Senate have broken with Bush's plan.
But there was no mistaking the urgency of Bush's public relations push, as Gates was to hold a press conference, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the airwaves to defend the troop increase despite the report.
Bush's strategy of deploying 30 000 more troops in Iraq is "a work in progress," Rice, who took the infrequent step of appearing on all major US television networks, told CBS.
"I don't agree you would give it a failing grade. You would say it's a work in progress," she said. "They have made not inconsequential movement forward on some of the important benchmarks, particularly those concerning security."
- AFP