Schwarzenegger backs 2007 deadline for U.S. in Iraq

Reuters - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, suggested on Wednesday that the United States should withdraw its military forces from Iraq by the end of this year.

Admitting strategy error, Bush adds Iraq troops

NBC News and news services - Defying public opinion polls and newly empowered Democratic lawmakers, President Bush told Americans Wednesday that he is dispatching 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. And in a rare admission, he said he made a mistake by not deploying more forces sooner.

“The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me,” Bush said in a televised address from the White House. “Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.”

With American patience running thin over his handling of the war, Bush said he would put greater pressure on Iraqis to restore order in Baghdad and used blunt language to warn Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that “America’s commitment is not open-ended.”

“If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people, and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people,” Bush said.

Bush said his new strategy, in which Iraqis will try to take responsibility for security in all 18 provinces by November rather than just three now, “will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings” and other violence.

But he said the increased military presence would help break the cycle of violence gripping Iraq and “hasten the day our troops begin coming home.”

Bush said that 17,500 troops would go to Baghdad and 4,000 to the volatile Anbar province, Senior administration officials said before the president spoke that the first wave of troops is expected to arrive in five days, with others joining about 130,000 U.S. troops already in Iraq in the coming weeks.

Bush’s decision will push the American presence in Iraq toward its highest level and puts him on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress.

Bush puts final touches on new Iraq policy

The Washington Post - President Bush is putting the final touches on his new Iraq policy amid growing skepticism inside and outside the administration that the emerging package of extra troops, economic assistance and political benchmarks for the Baghdad government will make any more than a marginal difference in stabilizing the country.

Washington's debate over Iraq will intensify this week as Bush lays out his plans, probably on Wednesday or Thursday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials face tough questions from Democrats in congressional hearings.

Although officials said the president has yet to settle on an exact figure of new troops, senior military leaders and commanders are deeply worried that a "surge" of as many as five brigades, or 20,000 troops, in Iraq and Kuwait would tax U.S. ground forces already stretched to the breaking point -- and may still prove inadequate to quell sectarian violence and the Sunni insurgency. Some senior U.S. officials think it could even backfire.

"There is a lot of concern that this won't work," said one military official not authorized to speak publicly about the debate at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, the political and economic ideas under consideration all appear to be variations on initiatives that U.S. and Iraqi authorities have proved unable to implement successfully since the 2003 invasion or have tried and found wanting, according to former U.S. officials and experts on reconstructing war-torn countries.

Many officials at the State and Defense departments also doubt that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is capable of making the necessary reforms, given its track record of promising but not delivering since taking power in May and despite Maliki's assurances in a speech yesterday that he would hold Iraqis accountable for implementing a new Baghdad security plan.

Possible election next spring

From The Globe and Mail Dec. 15, 2006

The possibility of a spring election surfaced yesterday as Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he expects to oppose the next Conservative budget.

This would mean he would join with Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, his old political foe, who has already declared he too is willing to topple Stephen Harper's minority government.

However, a few hours after Mr. Dion made his threat, a combative Mr. Harper said yesterday that neither he nor the public have an interest in an election at this time.

"I've got to say I really like this job, I want to keep it a while, I want to get some things done", the Prime Minister said. " I have no reason to call an election. The public's not asking for an election. I don't know what the reason for an election would be."

It was earlier this week that Mr. Ducippe started moving in for the kill when he said he is willing to defeat the Harper government on any one of three fronts: the fiscal imbalance, the Kyoto accord and the military mission in Afghanistan.

But Mr. Harper yesterday angrily rejected calling an election over Afghanistan. "Don't play a game on the backs of Canadian soldiers who are putting their lives at risk for us..."

Mr. Harper argued that the Bloc Leader's concern is a cover for the fact that he wants an election before the Conservatives fix the socalled fiscal imbalance. "I think Mr. Duceppe is looking for an excuse to call an election before we table a budget and we move forward on ore commitment to deal with the fiscal imbalance because Mr. Duceppe has come to realize the longer we have a Conservative government in office that Quebeckers see federalism works, federalism respects them..."