Bush advisors: Post-'surge' force to hold firm in Iraq

by Mark Silva

President Bush has gone to the Pentagon this morning for closed-door briefings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is expected to emerge with advice that U.S. military forces stand firm in Iraq following the final draw-down this summer of the “surge’’ forces that were added last year.

This is advice which Bush himself said he stood ready to accept in January, when he consulted with U.S. military and diplomatic leaders in Kuwait.

It is a decision which also could serve to reignite a debate over the war on the presidential campaign trail which has taken back seat to the nation’s economic woes in recent months. Both Democrats Sen. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are vowing to start withdrawing troops, if one of them is elected president in November. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, supports Bush’s stance.

Bush’s briefing this morning was to be led by Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presenting a consensus view of the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps on Iraq.

Bush already has heard from Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and multi-national forces in Iraq, on Monday and from Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday. Petraues plans to report to Congress in early April.

And Bush is widely expected to embrace his field commander's call for a temporary halt in troop withdrawals beyond the drawdown already taking place. The 21,500 added combat soldiers and Marines and several thousand more supporting forces that were deployed last year are gradually being withdrawn – returning this summer to a pre-surge deployment of about 130,000 troops in Iraq.

Petraeus, while calling the surge a success and citing lower levels of violence overall, maintains that any further drawdowns should jeopardize gains made.

The discussion comes amid renewed violence in Iraq, with an increase in fighting in Baghdad and the southern port of Basra.

The president will travel to Ohio on Thursday to deliver an address about Iraq, a continuation in a series of fifth-anniversary war speeches leading to Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivering their progress reports to Congress.