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US President George W. Bush met with top national security aides as he drew closer to unveiling a new strategy for Iraq, as ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's execution loomed.
“I've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan,” Bush told reporters at his ranch here. “I'm making good progress toward coming up with a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective.”
The gathering included Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Defense Secretary Robert Gates; National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, and Deputy National Security Adviser JD Crouch.
White House officials dubbed the talks “a non-decisional meeting,” while a senior aide said privately that Bush's much-anticipated speech on a new way forward in Iraq could come in the “first part of January.”
“The key to success in Iraq is to have a government that's willing to deal with the elements there that are trying to prevent this young democracy from succeeding. We want to help them succeed,” Bush said.
Critics of the president's war strategy accuse the administration of failing to level with Americans over Iraq, and many are billing the president's introspection as a last chance to change course before it is too late.
A CNN poll released December 18 found support for Bush's handling of Iraq had plunged to 28 percent, six points lower than in October. A record 70 percent of respondents said they disapproved of his war management.
Bush had resisted calls for a new course in Iraq until the November 7 elections gave opposition Democrats control of the US Congress, boosting calls for a change of strategy in a war that has lasted longer than the US role in World War II and cost more US lives than the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In an initial response to the election drubbing, Bush a day after the vote announced the resignation of his embattled defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The plan is taking shape and making progress on the way ahead, but I think he's driving towards conclusion, driving towards a final decision,” said a senior US official who requested anonymity.
The “bulk” of the three-hour morning talks, which continued after lunch, focused on Iraq's bloody sectarian strife, as well as the political and economic situation there, said the official.
The Bush aide did not say whether the officials had discussed a possible plan to “surge” the number of US troops in Iraq, adding 15,000-30,000 to the 130,000 already there, in a last-ditch effort to fend off all-out civil war.
Such a move would likely draw fire from Democrats — who will take over the US Congress in weeks — as well as the US public, which in poll after poll has favored bringing US forces home.
Five US troops were killed in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday, the US military announced, bringing December's death toll to 101 and keeping the month on course to be among the bloodiest for American forces this year.
The latest deaths brought to 2,984 the number of US fatalities in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
A senior White House official said Washington expects the death sentence for the deposed dictator to be carried out as early as Saturday.
Adding to the clamor for change, the independent, bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which unveiled its long-awaited report in December, called on Bush to launch an overhaul of policy, to commit to start withdrawing most combat troops by early 2008 and to hold direct talks with Iran and Syria on Iraq's plight.
But Bush, who has made a very public show of consulting top advisers and outside experts on Iraq in recent weeks, has publicly rebuffed both initiatives.
