Bush officials: Iraq strategy shift not expected

The Bush administration in Washington is saying it has no plans for radical shifts in Iraq war policy or for ultimatums to the Iraqi government, despite election-year pressure to change course.

Just two weeks before the November 7 elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, the White House yesterday tried to calm political anxieties about deteriorating security in Iraq.

Both Democratic and Republican politicians are demanding that President George Bush change his war plan.

“We’re on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

US and Iraqi officials should be held accountable for the lack of progress, said Graham, a Republican who is a frequent critic of the administration’s policies.

Asked who in particular should be held accountable – Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps, or the generals leading the war – Graham said: “All of them. It’s their job to come up with a game plan” to end the violence.

Bush, in a CNBC interview, said: “Well, I’ve been talking about a change in tactics ever since I…ever since we went in, because the role of the commander in chief is to say to our generals: 'You adjust to the enemy on the battlefield.'”

Rumsfeld, in remarks at the Pentagon, said US government and military officials were working with Iraq to set broad timeframes for when Iraqis can take over 16 provinces that are still under the control of US troops.

He said officials were not talking about penalising the Iraqis if they didn’t hit certain benchmarks.

The Iraqis have taken control of two southern provinces, but have been slow to take the lead in others, particularly those around Baghdad and in the volatile regions north and west of the capital city.

Rumsfeld said specific target dates probably will not be set. Instead, he said there might be a longer period, such as a one to three-month window, for the Iraqis to take control of certain provinces.

Rumsfeld visited the White House early yesterday with General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rumsfeld said the US was looking at when the Iraqis would move close to setting up a reconciliation process to help quell worsening sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

Frustration with the war is eroding support in Republican as well as Democratic camps.

Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said two Republicans have told him they will demand a new policy in Iraq after the election. Biden declined to name the politicians.

He said Republicans have been told not to make waves before the election because it could cost the party seats. Yet some prominent politicians have expressed doubts about Bush’s policy.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the United States was continually adjusting its strategy in Iraq.

“In that sense there are new things going on, but are there dramatic shifts in policy? The answer is no,” Snow said.

“There is still a very large to-do list before Iraq is in a position to sustain, govern and defend itself,” he said.

“Are we issuing ultimatums? No.”

He acknowledged, however, that Bush no longer was saying that the US will “stay the course” in Iraq.

“He stopped using it,” Snow said of that phrase, adding that it left the impression that the administration was not adjusting its strategy to realities in Baghdad.

Showing progress in Iraq is critical with the approaching elections, which are widely viewed as a referendum on public support of the war.

In Baghdad today, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, and General George Casey, the top US commander there, are scheduled to hold a rare joint news conference.

Facing growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s failure to stem the carnage, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said international forces must not abandon Iraq while the situation there remains volatile.

“I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run,” he said after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. He said Iraqis and the international community need to be realistic, “but not defeatist”.

“We need to understand that there is a need of utmost urgency to deal with many of the problems of Iraq but we must not give in to panic,” he said.