US State Department,
The United States issued a national strategy November 30 that carefully defines three stages for victory in Iraq, describes the enemy facing coalition and Iraqi forces, and reports on progress being made along political, economic and security fronts.
The report — National Strategy for Victory in Iraq — explains the broad strategy President Bush set forth for success in Iraq in 2003, but also provides an update on progress and the challenges that remain, according to the White House. The strategy released November 30 is the first time much of the material has been assembled in an unclassified document, the White House said.
Currently, the United States has 160,000 combat troops in Iraq along with thousands of combat troops from coalition nations, and there are approximately 212,000 Iraqi security forces, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said.
Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing November 29 that quitting Iraq now before Iraqi forces can protect and secure their own country would add considerable security risks to the United States. “Quitting is not an exit strategy,” he said. (See related article.)
President Bush gave a speech November 30 at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, that addressed the American objectives in Iraq and the plan for victory. The national strategy released by the White House and prepared by the National Security Council is designed to expand on Bush's remarks.
“As the central front in the global war on terror, success in Iraq is an essential element in the long war against the ideology that breeds international terrorism,” the strategy says.
The strategy defines victory in three stages:
