Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq

updated 9:13 p.m. ET Sept. 3, 2007

AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - President Bush, after hearing from top U.S. and Iraqi leaders, said Monday that some U.S. troops could be sent home if security conditions across Iraq continue to improve as they have in this former hotbed of Sunni insurgency.

But the president, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.

Bush spoke after hearing from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, who are testifying to Congress next week assessing the president’s troop buildup.

“Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we’re now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces,” Bush said.

Bush stood in front of two Humvees near a dusty tarmac of this desert outpost in western Iraq, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, to share his latest views about the war. He urged Congress to wait until they hear testimony from Crocker and Petraeus and see a White House progress report due by Sept. 15 before judging the result of his decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq.

NBC video Reality check Sept. 3: NBC's Brian Williams talks to reporters in the field about President Bush's Iraq visit. Nightly News

“I urge members of both parties in Congress to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report.”

Bush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top government officials from Baghdad. He urged the government to respond to progress in Anbar where violence has abated after Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents teamed up with U.S. troops to hunt down al-Qaida and other extremists.

He also met with Sunni tribal sheiks and members of Anbar’s governing body.

“I’m going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends,” he said.

To a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration’s war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein.

Even Republicans are pressuring Bush on troop cuts. Republican Sen. John Warner surprised the White House by declaring over the summer congressional break that he wants some U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq by Christmas. He said he may support Democratic legislation ordering withdrawals if Bush refuses to set a return timetable soon.

Marine briefs Bush on troop rotations
The temperature topped 110 degrees as Bush stepped off Air Force One. The president stopped at a small building where a Marine Cobra pilot briefed him about the positives and negatives of current troop rotations. He told the president that troops were not getting enough time at home and did not have enough time for training.

“Morale?” asked Bush. “How’s morale?”

“Very high sir,” the pilot, Capt. Lee Hemming, said.

Bush’s six-hour stay was being confined to Al-Asad Air Base, an airfield once part of Saddam Hussein’s military.

Hadley said the trip was conceived about six weeks ago when top White House advisers began discussing Bush’s role as Congress returns to Washington and debate over the war heats up. It was decided that progress in Anbar made it the perfect place to showcase the administration’s strategy.

There has been a drop in violence in Anbar, where Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents have teamed up with U.S. troops to hunt down al-Qaida and other extremists.

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