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| Iraq |
| Bush Sees Common Ground With Maliki on Troop Reductions |
| 2008-08-05 |
| SEOUL, Aug 5 -- President Bush said Monday he sees little distance between himself and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on how to approach troop reductions in Iraq, dismissing the suggestion that Maliki had effectively endorsed Sen. Barack Obama's plan to withdraw all U.S. combat brigades in 16 months. "I talk to him all the time, and that's not what I heard," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post aboard Air Force One on the start of a trip to Asia. "I heard a man who wants to work with the United States to come up with a rational way to have the United States withdraw combat troops depending upon conditions on the ground, that's all." Bush was seeking to play down recent Maliki comments, delivered in a German magazine, that appeared to give a boost to Obama's efforts to rebut Sen. John McCain's suggestion that his plans for Iraq are not prudent. Maliki told Der Spiegel last month that Obama's plan to withdraw one combat brigade a month seemed reasonable, and his government spokesman said Iraqis hoped all American combat troops could be out by the end of 2010. Bush said he did not see the prime minister's interview but suggested he still believes Maliki does not want a fixed timetable for U.S. withdrawal. In their own discussions, he said, Maliki "understands the need to set aspirational goals and to make sure the conditions on the ground warrant whatever aspirational goal there is." With violence on the decline in Iraq, Bush has been hinting in recent weeks that he would order further troop reductions this fall and has agreed for the first time to set a "'time horizon" with Baghdad for turning over control of security to Iraqi forces. But his administration has been laboring to draw a distinction between such a "time horizon" and the kind of timetables for withdrawal proposed by Obama and other Democrats. "The timetables that were being argued in the Congress were being argued based upon politics, not based upon conditions on the ground," Bush said in the interview. "That's what I was against." Bush made his remarks on the way to Asia for a seven-day trip that will bring him to South Korea, Thailand and China. Bush stopped late Monday for a rally with troops at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska before flying here Tuesday. Bush has meetings scheduled Wednesday with South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak before he travels on to Bangkok. Anticipating protests over the recent decision to allow the importation of American beef, Seoul police were planning to deploy some 16,000 police around the capital to keep demonstrations from becoming violent. But on the motorcade in from the airport, Bush saw only friendly faces, with hundreds of people waving Korean and American flags. White House Asia adviser Dennis Wilder told reporters he thought the beef issue had receded as Koreans have become more comfortable with the idea of eating American beef, which many Koreans have worried is unsafe. The half-hour conversation with Bush on Air Force One largely dealt with U.S.-China relations, but the president also addressed two other issues: Iraq and the recent charges of politicization at the U.S. Justice Department. In a report last week, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded that senior department officials broke the law and improperly took political considerations into account in screening applicants for civil service jobs. Bush described the report as a "very thorough and well-researched analysis" but declined to say much more. He also refused to get drawn into a discussion of whether there was "too much politics" in administration hiring, as Democrats and others have charged. "I had a lot of hires in this administration, a lot of parts of it," Bush said. "I've read the critique. I've listened very seriously to what they said. And other than that, I have no comment." On Iraq, Bush said he remains "hopeful we'll get a deal" with the Baghdad government on a long-term strategic framework agreement that would govern cultural, diplomatic and other relations between the United States and Iraq, as well as a short-term agreement governing the conduct of U.S. forces in Iraq. The two sides have been negotiating these agreements for months and had been hoping to wrap things up by the end of July. Bush dismissed the suggestion that it might be more appropriate to leave these matters for the next president, as many Democrats in Congress have argued. "Any president can make a decision with troops that he sees fit," he said. "Any prime minister of Iraq can . . . decide our presence isn't necessary." He also said the final agreement would not represent a formal treaty that needs to be ratified by the Senate. "I think you'll find that when the agreement emerges it's an agreement that . . . has to be accepted by both parties," Bush said. "In other words, it's something that requires a constant analysis and renewal. And in other words, it's not a treaty." |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |