A Whole New War

The Coverage

Peter Baker and Josh White write in The Washington Post: "President Bush said yesterday that he will send more U.S. forces and equipment to Baghdad as part of a fresh strategy to put down rising sectarian violence, abandoning a six-week-old operation that failed to pacify the strife-torn Iraqi capital and opening what aides called an unexpected new phase of the war.

"Playing host to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House for the first time, Bush sounded unusually dour and acknowledged that the situation in Iraq in many ways has worsened lately. But he vowed to adjust tactics to deal with evolving threats and to keep U.S. forces in Iraq as long as necessary to fortify Maliki's government until it can defend itself.

"The additional U.S. forces for Baghdad, which could total in the thousands, would come from elsewhere in Iraq, but the deteriorating security situation seemed to all but doom the prospect for significant troop withdrawals before the November congressional elections. . . .

"The Bush administration is trying to respond to the shifting nature of the war. Where once U.S. forces were focused primarily on anti-U.S. foreign fighters and Sunni insurgents, today they confront a more complicated situation in which de facto militias are targeting Iraqis, in some cases aided by Iraqi police forces commanded by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry."

Jim Rutenberg writes in the New York Times: "The announcement followed the White House's acknowledgment last week that a security plan Mr. Maliki announced in June had failed to produce the desired results. . . .

"Mr. Hadley, the national security adviser, said the failure of the initial plan forced the administration to move to what he called 'Phase II.'

"But other officials said there was no Phase II in the previous plan.

" 'This is more like Plan B,' said one of Mr. Hadley's associates, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal policy matters. 'Six weeks ago, we were talking about pulling American troops back from the city streets, not putting more of them out there.' "

Maliki and Lebanon

Several of the questions at the press availability yesterday were about the situation in Lebanon.

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "Reuters's Steve Holland pressed Maliki to clarify his position on Hezbollah and asked Bush how he could stop the fighting if allies won't condemn the terrorist group. Both men responded with non sequiturs.

" 'The terrorists are afraid of democracies,' Bush proffered.

" 'We'll be facing a variety of issues in different countries,' Maliki added.