Bush opens Iraq strategy overhaul

CAMP DAVID, Maryland – US President George W Bush was to hold talks yesterday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on how best to help the new government in Baghdad, paving the way for an eventual US withdrawal.

From the secluded Camp David retreat, Bush and top US officials were to hold a roughly hour-long video conference with Maliki and his senior aides in the violence-wracked Iraqi capital to map a way forward, the White House said. The US president was to return to Washington later in the day and take questions from reporters after two days of high-level talks aimed at reassessing US strategy in Iraq.Bush said after day-long talks with senior advisers on Monday that talk of a US withdrawal from Iraq was premature, even as he placed new leaders in Baghdad squarely in charge of ultimately pacifying their country.Bush suggested that Maliki’s fledgling government tap Iraq’s vast oil reserves to create a special fund to help Iraqis, securing support against militants behind a bloody insurgency.”The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people,” he said.Bush also urged Iraq’s neighbours and the international community to do more to help Maliki’s new government and vowed to target the successor to al Qaeda’s chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last week.”The successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice,” said Bush, who called the Jordan-born extremist’s death “a major blow” to Osama bin Laden’s group but warned it is “not going to end the war”.Amid mounting pressure to bring some or all US troops home, the president said that the commander of US forces in Iraq, General George Casey, would assess how well Maliki’s team was doing in defeating the insurgency.”Whatever we do will be based upon the conditions on the ground.And whatever we do will be toward a strategy of victory,” said Bush.”This is a process of understanding the Iraqi capabilities.”A senior White House official said that the new leadership in Iraq – the first permanent government since Saddam Hussein’s ouster three years ago – marked a “break point” that left Iraqis “in charge” of their country.That rhetoric, and recent emphasis on the role the international community must play, suggest a new effort to shift the burden for Iraq from Washington and a few other countries to a broader base.The US president also suggested that Iraq’s vast oil reserves might be one of Maliki’s best weapons against those who seek to destabilise his government, proposing the creation of a special fund to help the Iraqi people.”The new government is going to have to figure out how best to lease the people’s lands in a fair way,” said Bush.”My own view is that the government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country and ought to think about having, you know, a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government,” he said.- Nampa-AFPThe US president was to return to Washington later in the day and take questions from reporters after two days of high-level talks aimed at reassessing US strategy in Iraq.Bush said after day-long talks with senior advisers on Monday that talk of a US withdrawal from Iraq was premature, even as he placed new leaders in Baghdad squarely in charge of ultimately pacifying their country.Bush suggested that Maliki’s fledgling government tap Iraq’s vast oil reserves to create a special fund to help Iraqis, securing support against militants behind a bloody insurgency.”The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people,” he said.Bush also urged Iraq’s neighbours and the international community to do more to help Maliki’s new government and vowed to target the successor to al Qaeda’s chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last week.”The successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice,” said Bush, who called the Jordan-born extremist’s death “a major blow” to Osama bin Laden’s group but warned it is “not going to end the war”.Amid mounting pressure to bring some or all US troops home, the president said that the commander of US forces in Iraq, General George Casey, would assess how well Maliki’s team was doing in defeating the insurgency.”Whatever we do will be based upon the conditions on the ground.And whatever we do will be toward a strategy of victory,” said Bush.”This is a process of understanding the Iraqi capabilities.”A senior White House official said that the new leadership in Iraq – the first permanent government since Saddam Hussein’s ouster three years ago – marked a “break point” that left Iraqis “in charge” of their country.That rhetoric, and recent emphasis on the role the international community must play, suggest a new effort to shift the burden for Iraq from Washington and a few other countries to a broader base.The US president also suggested that Iraq’s vast oil reserves might be one of Maliki’s best weapons against those who seek to destabilise his government, proposing the creation of a special fund to help the Iraqi people.”The new government is going to have to figure out how best to lease the people’s lands in a fair way,” said Bush.”My own view is that the government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country and ought to think about having, you know, a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government,” he said.- Nampa-AFP