October 11, 2006
Bush Press Conference The Rose Garden
Bush: I trust General Casey. I find him to be one of the really competent, decent guys.
Q: But --
Bush: "Let me finish please for a second. Plus, I couldn't hear you, but I saw you talking. Anyway, I think it's -- I value his judgment. I value his -- I know he wants to succeed and I value his objectivity. And he -- what's important for the President is when I open up that door in there and General Casey walks in, he feels confident to tell me what's on his mind, Jim -- here's what's going right, and here's what's going wrong, and here's what we're doing about it."
"I said, General, the Baghdad security plan is in its early implementation. I support you strongly, but if you come into this office and say we need to do something differently, I support you. If you need more troops, I support you. If you're going to devise a new strategy, we're with you, because I trust General Casey to make the judgments necessary to put the tactics in place to help us achieve an objective."
October 11, 2006
DoD News Briefing with Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. CaseyQ: . . .is it a fair assessment at all to say that Iraq is currently in a civil war?
GEN. CASEY: I don't believe so. And I don't -- the Iraqis I talk to don't believe so either. It's a difficult struggle. If you took a 30-mile radius from the center of Baghdad and drew a circle, 90 percent of the sectarian violence that goes on in Iraq, 80 to 90 percent, would take place in that circle; a little bit outside of that in Diyala Province, and a little bit down in Basra. So the idea that the country's aflame in sectarian violence is just not right. So I don't subscribe to the civil war theory.
Q General Casey, I note going back to what you just said that several weeks ago, you made the decision not to off-ramp troops. But since that decision, in fact, all the statistics show that fatalities for U.S. troops are on the rise, the number of wounded continues to rise, the number of attacks continue to rise. Senator Warner has now come out and expressed his concern that something now has to change in the next two to three months. So you have made that one decision, but what are you looking at now to -- in terms of reviewing, changing, adapting your strategy? And what's the next step to get control on the violence strictly from the security standpoint, not economic and political?
GEN. CASEY: The operational strategy to deal with the increases in violence is something that I'm working very closely with Pete Chiarelli. But the broad strategy, where we are working to bring the levels of insurgency down as we bring Iraqi security forces up, I believe, is still a valid framework for what we're doing there in Iraq. And we will continue to look tactically at what's happening on the ground and my subordinate commanders will work to deal with that.
Q But in the last six weeks, it's all gone upward. How do you --
GEN. CASEY: It actually hasn't all gone upwards. I think we shouldn't try to sugarcoat this. The levels of violence over the last few weeks are as high as they have been.
An Unknown City Erupts
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail
BAQUBA, Oct 9 (IPS) - The little known city of Baquba is emerging as one of the hotbeds of resistance in Iraq, with clashes breaking out every day.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35037 New Militias Push Govt Back Further
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail
RAMADI, Oct 3 (IPS) - Reports of the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34973http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree