Posted on 05/24/2004 1:41:15 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- President Bush Monday prepared to deliver his highly anticipated prime-time speech on the U.S. strategy for the war in Iraq as he was hammered by continued bad news and flagging poll ratings.
The speech will discuss the "specific steps we are taking to build a free and democratic Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Monday, including the five steps the United States is pursuing to meet the June 30 deadline to transfer sovereignty in Iraq.
The speech will not include a date for the pullout of U.S. troops, he added. "We will stay as long as necessary and not one day longer," he said, repeating the administration's stance on the issue.
Bush "remains firmly committed to that," he added.
Bush is scheduled to give the half-hour speech in Carlisle, Pa., in front of approximately 450 students, faculty and staff of the U.S. Army War College. Despite press reports, McClellan shied away from describing the speech as part of a series. Bush "has been talking about Iraq and he's going to continue to discuss what's going on in Iraq," he said, adding that the talks may have "different focus at times."
The speech itself comes at a critical time for the administration, as Bush has faced setbacks on several fronts in the past several weeks. An explosion Monday within the secured "Green Zone" in Baghdad killed at least four people, while the scandal over alleged prisoner abuse by U.S. troops at the Abu Ghraib facility continues to hold sway over news reports.
Intelligence reports also indicate former Pentagon adviser and head of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi, provided false information to the United States and passed U.S. information to the Iranian regime.
Justification for invading Iraq was based on evidence the Saddam Hussein regime had and was developing further weapons of mass destruction. That information came from Chalabi, who also told the U.S. government its troops would be greeted as liberators.
U.S. forces have yet to find significant evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They also have found themselves in a country angry at being occupied and have suffered hundreds of casualties from rebel forces in Iraq.
Chalabi made the talk-show circuit over the weekend, protesting his innocence on NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" and "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace."
"It's not true. It's a false charge. It's a smear," Chalabi told Stephanopoulos.
"I have become a person who is calling for complete sovereignty in Iraq and I want Iraq to be a government, a democratic country with a democratic government," he later added. "And I refuse to have Iraq become a state of terror run by covert-action agencies under diplomatic cover. That is the reason that all this is happening."
Since the controversy emerged, the Bush administration has disavowed any ongoing connection with Chalabi. "His future is in the hands of the Iraqi people," McClellan said Monday.
"The president is looking forward. The past is the past," he added.
McClellan did not say specifically what the president would address but said he would provide a clear view of the strategy the United States is addressing to achieve a "free and democratic and peaceful Iraq."
The president last held a prime-time event to talk about the Iraq war in mid-April, when he hosted a rare Bush White House news conference. During that conference Bush announced his intention to follow the original timeline to transfer sovereignty in Iraq.
"We will not step back from our pledge. On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands," Bush said April 15, a pledge he repeated many times in the next weeks.
Monday's speech will include the administration's plans to address five elements of the conflict in Iraq, McClellan said Monday, including political, economic, security, reconstruction and diplomatic issues.
The administration is looking to eliminate security threats in Iraq, expand Iraqi security forces, increasingly partner with Iraqis to transfer governance, rebuild the country's infrastructure and broaden international support, McClellan said.
The U.S. delegation to the United Nations was scheduled to present a draft resolution that would throw international support behind U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's plan to appoint a democratic Iraqi government.
"We believe there is strong support, based on our discussions regarding this resolution, for this resolution," McClellan said.
But the president is also facing an increasingly hostile domestic situation less than six months from the presidential election.
In a book published Monday, retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni charges "everyone" knew the U.S. military plan was inadequate to deal with the situation in Iraq, the Washington Post reported.
Zinni, former U.S. commander in the Middle East, wrote that in the lead up to the war and the later conduct "I saw, at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility; at worst, lying, incompetence and corruption. ...
"If there is a center that can hold this mess together, I don't know what it is. Civil war could break out at any time. Resources are needed; a strategy is needed; and a plan is needed."
Support among fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill also has wavered, precipitating a trip to the Hill by Bush last week, while Bush has seen his lowest-ever job approval performance in recent polls.
The White House has acknowledged the difficulties but continues its vow to finish the war and reconstruction in Iraq. "We've been through a difficult period and there are going to be difficult periods ahead," McClellan said. "The mission at hand is not an easy one, but it's absolutely vital to the issue at hand and the president will talk about that."
--
(Please send comments to nationaldesk@upi.com.)
Ah, Zinni...the architect of the USS Cole disaster and current media whore.
A gallon of Sarin, equivalent to a dosage capable of killing over 8 million people, is not "significant."
I wonder what would be.
He seems to have been writing the DNC attack points!
And it's not like they made only one.
Zinni has also become the latest darling for the I-hate-Bush crowd here at FR...he's being quoted more the pat buchanan.
They aren't ready to tell us that just yet!
They need Kerry in office so they can figure it out!
And Iraqi scientist inside a hollowed out mountain in Libya don't count either cause they weren't in Iraq!
And how about a few IRAQI nuclear scientists working in a mountain in LIBYA ?!?!?!
OK?! I have NOT heard about that myself. Do Tell.
This Just in From a Student Inside of Iran...(Regime 'sees' U.S. Vulnerability)
"Whoa."
NOtably, he's selling a book. It's SOP to make such claims to generate interest.
Yes...he sold his honor to sell a book...written for the I-hate-Bush crowd.
That's just what a lot of us thought when we heard it!
I don't expect to hear anything about it tonight though!
Yep, Clarke proved out that theory pretty well!
Oh, I thought he was the guy who won the war game.
Remember?
???
Zinni is a highly decorated veteran of a million years or so.
Back before the war began, they played some war games built around Iraq. I think it was Zinni, commanding the "red" forces, who defeated the blue forces with some rather creative approaches.
Thought everyone knew about that. Got him in real hot water, I want you to know.
Don't want to show Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and those guys to possibly be wrong!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.