US President George W. Bush is drawing closer to a decision on US troop levels in Iraq after receiving top US commander General David Petraeus’ advice, the White House said on Thursday.
The vastly unpopular war is a central front in the political war ahead of the Nov. 4 elections that will decide who succeeds Bush — and who will inherit the conflict he launched with the March 2003 US-led invasion.
“The president is now considering his options and I would expect that as he works through that, as soon as he’s finished, we’d be able to provide you more information,” White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Perino offered no further details, but hinted that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs, may say more at a congressional hearing next week.
The issue of possible US troop withdrawals from Iraq looms large over the US presidential election, with the vastly unpopular war fueling the White House hopes of Bush’s Democratic foes.
Bush’s preferred successor, Senator John McCain, has pinned his hopes on his early and fervent support of the so-called US troop “surge” that has helped bring down once-overwhelming levels of sectarian violence.
McCain’s rival, Democrat Barack Obama, has pledged to begin troop withdrawals immediately if elected and foresees most combat troops being out of Iraq by late 2010.
In a television interview on Thursday Obama said the surge “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” but said political reconciliation in Iraq was still wanting.
“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said on the Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor.
Recent polls show two out of three Americans oppose the war and want to see a quick withdrawal, but many view the “surge” as a success story, and Bush has repeatedly said that US politics would not shape his decision.
But the US president now faces freshly confident Iraqi leaders who are calling for a precise date for US forces to leave — the kind of timetable Bush has long described as a recipe for a catastrophic defeat.
The issue has been one of the sticking points in talks between Washington and Baghdad on an accord laying out the rights and responsibilities of US troops after the UN mandate for the occupation lapses in December.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the deal is all but done, and that it calls for foreign forces to be gone by 2011.
Petraeus told the Financial Times in an interview on Thursday that US combat troops could be out of Baghdad by July next year, but did not offer any information about the strategic agreement.
The general recently wrapped up a 45-day assessment period, which began in late July when the last of the five US brigades sent to Iraq as part of the escalation announced in January last year returned home.
“That period now having ended, General Petraeus through his chain of command has given his assessment, and Secretary Gates and Chairman Mullen have briefed the president,” Perino said.
Bush has repeatedly said he hopes to bring more US troops home, though Georgia’s recent withdrawal of its roughly 2,000 soldiers from Iraq in the face of a war with Russia may have complicated the US strategic picture.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS