Bush to Add 21,500 Troops In an Effort to Stabilize Iraq

Some Republican backbenchers went further. "I do not believe that sending more troops to Iraq is the answer," Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who is considering a bid for the White House, said in a written statement issued from Baghdad. "Iraq requires a political rather than a military solution."

Although billed as a major new strategy from the White House, the president's plan seemed to draw on familiar strands of political, military and economic policy. Bush also sounded familiar themes in outlining the consequences of failure in Iraq, warning that radical Islamic extremists would grow and be positioned to topple moderate governments in the Middle East. He did not step back from his ambitious goal of a democratic Iraq that can sustain and defend itself.

The president challenged the Iraqi government to meet political benchmarks that it has consistently failed to achieve, such as a new law for the equitable distribution of oil revenue and holding provincial elections, both seen as critical to winning political support for the Shiite-led government from disaffected Sunnis. But he proposed no penalties for failing to comply with these milestones -- on the theory, his aides said, that it would be counterproductive to be seen as dictating terms to the Iraqi government. Bush also set no timetable for the removal of the added U.S. troops.

As part of his plan, the president outlined an expansion of economic assistance programs to complement the new security plan for Baghdad. "Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities," he said.

The United States will allocate more than $1 billion for three programs to create jobs and help reconstruction in neighborhoods secured by Iraqi and U.S. forces. The administration will also add nine provincial reconstruction teams, which are joint Pentagon and State Department programs, to help rebuild the country from the bottom up, including schools, local government and political interest groups.

Bush did not embrace the idea of dialogue with Iran and Syria to stabilize Iraq, a key recommendation of the Iraq Study Group. The panel, chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), had hoped to restore bipartisan consensus around a new Iraq policy. While praising the group for its "thoughtful recommendations," Bush had tough words for Iran and Syria and seemed to promise stepped-up operations against both countries.

Bush vowed to "interrupt the flow of support" from Iraq's two key neighbors and to "seek out and destroy" networks providing weapons and training to U.S. enemies in Iraq.

"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity, and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria," he said.

In a clear warning to the hard-line government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bush also announced that the United States will deploy Patriot air defense systems and expand intelligence sharing "to reassure our friends and allies."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will depart for the region tomorrow to rally support for Iraq, particularly among the new "six plus two" bloc of conservative states that includes Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and five sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf region, he said.

One turnabout for the president came in his acknowledgment that security must be the first priority of the U.S. mission in Iraq -- not political reform, as many in the U.S. military have argued. "The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad," Bush said last night.

U.S. officials concede that the previous "clear, hold and build" program managed to clear areas of militants but did not hold or secure them afterward, allowing neighborhoods to fall back under the control of militants. Bush touched on this last night in explaining the failure to bring security to the capital.