Choices dwindle if Iraq war plan failsParagraphs 4-7
The administration is almost certainly considering fallback options if the latest plan falls apart. Officials are loath to talk about them.
Over two days of intense hearings on Capitol Hill last week, lawmakers raised questions at the margins about a Plan B even as they probed and for the most part attacked Plan A: Bush's move to increase U.S. forces to give Iraqis more time to take control of their own security.
Administration officials, defending a war that many in the U.S. and much of the world thinks is failing already, would not discuss what options will be left if the new approach fails. "Re-evaluate our strategy," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Yet he hinted that the planned troop increase need not take place in its entirety if conditions change. "We are trying to construct this in a way that there are off-ramps," he said, so that "you don't necessarily have to go to the full extent of the buildup."
Ft Wayne Journal Gazette's Headline 1/14/2006
What if Bush plan fails?
Officials mum on Iraq but hint at 'off-ramps'