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President: U.S. 'not winning, not losing' Iraq

By WASHINGTON POST
Published December 20, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [AP Photo] President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney listen as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, not shown, speaks during a swearing-in ceremony at the Pentagon on Monday.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said for the first time Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the "stressed" U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.

As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with the Washington Post. The assessment was a reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, said: "Absolutely, we're winning."

In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. "We need to reset our military," Bush said.

The president said he interpreted Democrats' election victories six weeks ago not as a call to find new ways to make the mission there succeed. He said he is considering a short-term surge in troops in Iraq, an option that top generals have resisted out of concern that it would not help.

Although the president offered no specifics, other officials said the administration is preparing plans to bolster the nation's permanent active-duty military with as many as 70,000 additional troops.

Such growth would reverse the course pursued by Donald Rumsfeld, who six years ago as defense secretary set out to restructure the nation's military and advocated cutting two divisions, or about 40,000 soldiers, from the Army.

Commanders have grown increasingly alarmed about the burden of long deployments and the military's ability to handle a variety of threats around the world simultaneously. Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, told Congress last week that the active-duty Army "will break" under the strain of today's war-zone rotations. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Face the Nation on Sunday that "the active Army is about broken."

As recently as June, the Bush administration opposed adding more troops. But Bush on Tuesday said he had changed his mind.

"I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops - the Army, the Marines," he said. "And I talked about this to Secretary Gates, and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea."

In describing his decision, Bush tied it to the broader struggle against Islamic extremists around the world rather than to Iraq specifically. "It is an accurate reflection that this ideological war we're in is going to last for a while and that we're going to need a military that's capable of being able to sustain our efforts and to help us achieve peace," he said.

Bush chose a different term than Powell. "I haven't heard the word 'broken,' " he said, "but I've heard the word, 'stressed.' ... We need to reset our military. And the fundamental question is, 'Will Republicans and Democrats be able to work with the administration to assure our military and the American people that we will position our military so that it is ready and able to stay engaged in a long war?' "

Democrats quickly seized on Bush's comments.

"I am glad he has realized the need for increasing the size of the armed forces ... but this is where the Democrats have been for two years," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. Kerry issued a statement calling Bush's move a "pragmatic step needed to deal with the warnings of a broken military."

Bush, who had previously said the United States is headed for victory in Iraq, said Tuesday that: "An interesting construct that Gen. Pace uses is: We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said, referring to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman. "There's been some very positive developments. ... obviously the real problem we face is the sectarian violence that needs to be dealt with."

Also in Iraq

Violence: Police said they found 53 bodies around Baghdad on Tuesday, reportedly victims of violence between Sunnis and Shiites. Many of the bodies showed signs of torture. The morgue in Baqubah received 15 bodies of people who died violently, and the morgue in Kut received seven bodies.

U.S. death: The U.S. military announced Tuesday the death of a Marine in the Anbar province.

Executions: Iraqi authorities executed 13 men by hanging Tuesday in Baghdad after they were convicted of murder and kidnapping.

[Last modified December 20, 2006, 05:54:17]