Bush: Iraq conflict ‘will take time and patience’

updated 9:32 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2005

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - President Bush, facing growing doubts about his war strategy, said Wednesday that Iraqi troops are increasingly taking the lead in battle but that “this will take time and patience.” He refused to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces.

Bush said the U.S. military presence in Iraq is set to change, by making fewer patrols and convoys, moving out of Iraqi cities and focusing more on specialized operations aimed at high-value terrorist targets.

“As Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop level in Iraq without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists,” Bush told a supportive audience at the U.S. Naval Academy. “These decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders, not by artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington.”

Bush’s emphasis on the readiness of Iraqi security forces came at a time when continued violence in Iraq and the death of more than 2,000 U.S. troops have contributed to a sharp drop in the president’s popularity.

‘Tired rhetoric’
Even before Bush finished speaking, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid issued a statement claiming that Bush “recycled his tired rhetoric of ‘stay the course’ and once again missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in Iraq that will bring our troops safely home.”

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi embraced a call by a prominent defense hawk in her party to immediately begin a withdrawal. Two weeks ago, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., set off a firestorm when he said a complete pullout should be achieved in six months.

“The status quo is not working,” Pelosi said Wednesday.

“There needs to be a full-court press of information available” to Congress and the public, agreed Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

With lawmakers and others calling for a more sober assessment of the situation in Iraq, Bush acknowledged setbacks in the training of Iraqi forces. He recalled a time when Iraqi soldiers ran from battle, and said the United States has made several changes reflecting lessons learned from early mistakes in how Iraqis were trained.

NBC VIDEO How ready are Iraqi troops? Nov. 30: President Bush says Iraqi troops are progressing, but how ready are the Iraqis to go it alone if they had to? NBC's Jim Miklaszewski examines. Nightly News

“Some critics continue to assert that we have no plan in Iraq except to ‘stay the course,”’ Bush said. “If by ‘stay the course’ they mean we will not allow the terrorists to break our will, they’re right. If by ‘stay the course’ they mean we will not permit al-Qaida to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban, a safe haven for terrorists and a launching pad for attacks on America, they’re right as well. If by ‘stay the course’ they mean that we’re not learning from our experience or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then they’re flat wrong.”

He did not say that the terrorists now in Iraq had anything to do with the 2001 terror attacks in the United States, but he powerfully linked the two, saying they “share the same ideology.”

Bush said many Iraqi forces have made real gains over the past year.

“As the Iraqi forces grow more capable, they are increasingly taking the lead in the fight against the terrorists,” Bush said. “Our goal is to train enough Iraqi forces so they can carry the fight against the terrorists.”

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