"News that's not known, or not known enough."
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." |
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| September to "make a coherent judgment of where we are." |
Mixon's operational briefing on what troops have been doing in recent weeks in some ways mirrored the mixed report released by the White House Thursday regarding progress in Iraq. He enumerated military successes Mixon spoke of a troop drawdown that would be smaller and slower than Democrats envision. In his area, he said he thought he could begin to reduce forces in January, taking a year to 18 months to reduce his numbers by about half. Those remaining would reduce their activities to training Iraq security forces, helping them when needed, and providing capabilities Iraqis don't have, such as attack aviation and medical support. "It needs to be well thought out," he said of any plans to drawn down forces. "It cannot be a strategy that is based on 'Well, we need to leave.' That's not a strategy, that's a withdrawal," Mixon said. Asked if he believed it would be a mistake to begin a withdrawal before January, Mixon said: "That's my military opinion and I'm going to have to stay with that." Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace planned an early afternoon news conference at the Pentagon. For her part, Rice argued that Baghdad has made headway in lowering the level of sectarian violence, pointing to "something that isn't even on that benchmark list "I understand people's concern. I understand people's impatience," she said. But Rice said "we ought to stick" to the troop build up strategy that President Bush announced in January, and wait until September when commanding Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are scheduled to deliver a new assessment of conditions there. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Friday, "I don't think there's much debate in the Senate about disappointment with the Iraqi government. It's pretty uniform." But he said he expects the Republican caucus to stand behind Bush. The White House took the position that the House vote shows, "we have at least a cohesive position on our side for now," deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Friday. "We are under no illusion and we're very clear-eyed about the fact that we have a lot of work to do to talk to members of Congress, hear what they have to say," she said, "but just as important, to provide David Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker enough time for them to get their plan under way and implemented so that we can move those unsatisfactory marks into the satisfactory column." Asked whether Bush could still resist a mandated timeline after September, Perino replied, "Absolutely, yes." Congressional Democrats, saying the war was draining U.S. assets from the fight against al-Qaida, moved Friday to highlight what they see as a major failure in Bush's war on terror: the inability to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. The Senate voted 87-1 in favor of doubling the reward to $50 million for information leading to his capture. The bill also would require regular classified reports from the administration explaining what steps it's taking to find bin Laden. Said Rice: "I don't agree that you would give it (the al-Maliki government) a failing grade. You would say that it's a work in progress. You would say that they have not made inconsequential movement forward on some of the important benchmarks, particularly those involving security." Rice appeared on Fox News' Fox & Friends, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS's The Early Show and on CNN; McConnell appeared on CNN.
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