Bush to address Americans on Iraq plan on Jan 10

Washington, Jan 9: President George W Bush set Wednesday for his Iraq speech and was close to final decisions yesterday on a new war strategy expected to include sending up to 20,000 more US troops over Democrats' objections.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would address Americans on his new Iraq plan on Wednesday at 2100 hrs EST (0730 IST) from the White House.

In what could be a last-ditch effort to salvage the US mission in the unpopular three 1/2-year war, Bush's new plan is expected to include dispatching up to 20,000 more troops and establishing ''benchmarks'' for the Iraqi government to meet aimed at easing sectarian violence and stabilizing.

It is expected to contain a jobs program with the goal of putting Iraqis back to work. Its cost was unclear but expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Democrats now in control of Congress have been complaining about the president's plans to send more troops to Iraq, which they call an escalation of the conflict that goes against Americans' increasing disillusionment with the war.

Delaware Democratic Sen Joe Biden, a contender for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, told MSNBC that Bush was making a mistake by planning to put more troops into volatile Baghdad and needed to work toward a political solution in Iraq between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

''I think the president has got it backwards again. This escalation, he's going to come to regret. We've tried it twice,'' Biden said.

The new speaker of the House of Representatives, California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, told CBS' ''Face the Nation'' on Sunday that it was important Bush not be given a ''blank check'' in Iraq, but stopped short of saying Congress would block funding for the new plan.

Without saying what Bush will announce, Snow gave no sign that the president was being swayed by the Democratic opposition.

He said Bush's plan will generate a debate and that some members of Congress will agree with Bush and some will not.

''The president will announce a way forward that is designed to lead to victory in Iraq,'' he said.

Bush has already dismissed many of the main recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report last month called for a pullback of most combat forces by early 2008.

He has has moved to replace generals who expressed misgivings about risks of higher U.S. casualties and overstretched forces with military men more in step with his thinking.

In the latest move in a shake-up of his Iraq team ahead of Wednesday's announcement, the White House said Bush would nominate the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to represent Washington at the United Nations and replace him with Ryan Crocker, currently the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

A US official said Bush's goals on ''benchmarks'' include steps aimed at attracting more Sunnis into the Iraqi political process and to complete a long-stalled measure on distributing oil revenue.

The goal is to try to prompt the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to finally act to bring the warring groups together into a political reconciliation.

Democrats such as Michigan Sen. Carl Levin for months have been trying to coax Bush into linking continued US troop involvement in Iraq to progress on political milestones.

REUTERS

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