WASHINGTON, June 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday
confirmed that the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has drafted a plan to
bring many of U.S. troops home, but suggested it's only optional.
Bush made the remarks when talking with reporters in the White House after
meeting with groups that support U.S. troops in Iraq.
The president confirmed that he met with George Casey, the top U.S.
military commander in Iraq on Friday and knew of his plan, which expects the
number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current
level of 14 by December 2007.
But he stressed that any decision on troop reductions will be made by the
new Iraqi government and based upon recommendations from Casey.
"And one of the things Gen. Casey assured me of was that whatever
recommendation he makes, it'll be aimed toward achieving victory," Bush said
vaguely.
"And victory means a free government that is able to sustain itself, defend
itself," said the president.
Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Tony Snow, played down media
reports that according to Casey's plan, the United States is going to withdraw
two combat brigades from Iraq in September.
"I would caution very strongly against everybody thinking, ' Well, they're
going to pull two brigades out," Snow said.
"Maybe they will; maybe they won't," he said. "It really does depend upon a
whole series of things that we cannot at this juncture predict. I would
characterize this more in terms of scenario building, and we'll see how it
proceeds."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Casey told Bush both about positive
trends that he's seeing in Iraq, and the issues that lie ahead.
"The challenges that he talked about are very real and somewhat
unpredictable," said Whitman.
"And because of that, there's going to need to be a certain amount of
flexibility that the commander has, to adjust forces over time."
At present, there're 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and
some 2,500 U.S. soldiers have died since the war began in March 2003.
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