President George Bush called yesterday for an increase in the size of the US military, deepening expectations that he will send up to 30,000 more troops to Iraq in the new year. In a sign of forthcoming changes at the Pentagon after the departure of Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary, Mr Bush acknowledged that he had been taken aback by the eruption of sectarian violence in Iraq, and that it had been a difficult year.
He said he had asked Mr Rumsfeld’s successor, Robert Gates, to develop a plan to increase the size of the US army and marines after warnings from senior generals about the strain of repeated deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Gates made an unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday, two days after his swearing-in.
“I am inclined to believe we do need to increase our troops,” Mr Bush told a traditional year-end press conference. “We have an obligation to ensure our military is capable of sustaining this war over the long haul and performing the many tasks we ask of them.”
In another development, the Associated Press reported that the Pentagon was pressing the White House to seek an additional $99.7bn (£51bn) for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If approved, the request would drive the cost of the wars to $170bn for the current budget year.
An increase in the size of the army and marines represents a repudiation of the ideal of a smaller and more professional military championed by Mr Rumsfeld. Yesterday’s announcement was widely seen as a precursor to a short-term injection of up to 30,000 more troops into Iraq in a last-ditch attempt to secure Baghdad.
The most senior US generals had opposed sending more troops. General John Abizaid, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, had warned that it would deepen resentment of their presence and increase the dependence of the Iraqi authorities. However, the Pentagon announced Gen Abizaid’s retirement yesterday, a month after he submitted his papers, and the most senior US commander in Iraq, General William Casey, is also expected to quit, giving a freer hand to Mr Gates to try to craft a new strategy.
To that end, Mr Gates arrived in Baghdad for talks with US military chiefs and Iraqi military and political leaders on how to pacify the restive Anbar province and clamp down on sectarian violence in Baghdad. “The whole purpose is to go out, listen to the commanders, talk to the Iraqis and see what I can learn,” he said.
In Washington, Mr Bush acknowledged the Pentagon’s concerns, but refused to be drawn on whether he had decided to send more troops, postponing the announcement to the new year. “There’s got to be a specific mission that can be accomplished with the addition of more troops before … I agree on that strategy.” He added that an expansion of troops remained politically viable, despite the Republicans’ defeat in midterm elections.
He said he had been surprised and disappointed by the rapid spread of sectarian violence in Iraq over the past year. This week he told Washington Post reporters in an Oval Office interview: “We’re not winning, we’re not losing.”
It was his first expression of doubt about the strategy in Iraq, nearly four years after the invasion. Yesterday, the president said he remained convinced the US would win the war, but victory was taking longer than he had hoped.
