Bush, Iraq to discuss withdrawal timetable
Move is shift in US strategy; Pressure seen on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON - President Bush and Iraq's prime minister have agreed to set a "time horizon" for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq as part of a long-term security accord they are trying to negotiate by the end of the month, White House officials said yesterday.
The decision, reached during a videoconference Thursday between Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, marks the culmination of a gradual but significant shift for the president, who has adamantly fought - and even ridiculed - efforts by congressional Democrats to impose what he described as artificial timetables for withdrawing US forces.
In recent weeks, Bush and senior officials have hinted that they would be open to "aspirational" goals for removing US troops, as Maliki and other Iraqi politicians have voiced increasing discontent with the idea of an open-ended US troop presence in their country.
The White House has also been under pressure from top military officers to make more US forces available for the war in Afghanistan, and that would be possible only by reducing the number of troops in Iraq, administration officials said.
The administration did not specify yesterday what kind of timetables were envisioned.
US troop levels in Iraq have been decreasing in recent months, as they return to the 15 combat brigades present before Bush ordered a troop increase last year.
There are still 150,000 US troops in Iraq.
Senior military officials have made clear that they expect troop levels to drop further this fall after a 45-day period of assessment by General David H. Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq.
After the conversation between Bush and Maliki, the White House went further than it has in previous official statements to indicate that it shares that expectation.
"In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals," the White House said.
It said those goals include turning over more control to Iraqi security forces and "the further reduction of US combat forces from Iraq."
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration had reversed course and was "finally facing reality."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain saw the Bush-Maliki discussion as proof that a recent troop buildup had succeeded, making a "conditions-based withdrawal" possible, according to a statement issued by his campaign. McCain has opposed setting a deadline.
McCain's statement said that if the president had followed the policy of the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, "Iraq would have descended into chaos, American casualties would be far higher, and the region would be destabilized."
Obama has vowed to withdraw troops in 16 months and is preparing for his own trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday, his campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, said Bush's announcement "represents a step in the right direction."
"Now, instead of vague allusions to a 'general time horizon,' it's time to pressure Iraq's leaders to reach the political accommodation necessary for long-term stability and to refocus on strengthening our military and finishing the fight in Afghanistan," Burton said.
Aides to Bush portrayed the announcement yesterday as consistent with the president's longstanding position that troop levels could be reduced in Iraq only as security conditions improved and as Iraqi forces showed greater capacity.
However, some aides said privately that the statement was necessary for the Iraqi government, which wants to show the Iraqi public that US forces are on their way out while limiting any risk from reduced troop levels.
"I think it's important to remember that the discussions about timeline issues previously were from Democrats in Congress who wanted to arbitrarily retreat from Iraq without consideration of conditions on the ground," spokesman Scott Stanzel said while traveling with Bush on a fund-raising trip in Arizona and Texas.
The White House statement was an effort to demonstrate unity between Washington and Baghdad after recent reports that the two sides were having difficulty completing agreements that will govern long-term ties and rules for how US troops will operate in Iraq.
US officials voiced confidence that they would be able to reach a long-term strategic agreement, which would include the aspirational goals, by the end of the month.
Representative William Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has conducted hearings on the proposed agreement, said the next administration should conduct the negotiations.
"They are the ones who are going to have to live with whatever agreement is struck," he said.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh confirmed that Iraq and the United States had agreed "to specify a time horizon to achieve a full handover of security responsibility to the Iraqi forces in order to decrease American forces and allow for its withdrawal from Iraq."
But Sadiq Rikabi, a senior political adviser to Maliki, said in an interview that negotiators were still hashing out the details of troop cuts.
The Iraqi government, he said, wants specific timetables governing different stages of what will eventually become a full US withdrawal of combat forces.
In Baghdad yesterday, thousands of worshipers gathered to hear a sermon by Sheik Mohanned al-Mousawi, an ally of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and call for an end to the US troop presence. 