Progress in Anbar province prompts presidential optimism

President Bush, after hearing from top U.S. and Iraqi leaders, said Monday that some U.S. troops could be sent home if security conditions across Iraq continue to improve as they have in Anbar province.\nBut the president, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.\nBush spoke after hearing from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, who are testifying to Congress next week when it assesses the president’s troop buildup.\n“Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we’re now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces,” Bush said.\nBush stood in front of two Humvees near a dusty tarmac of this desert outpost in western Iraq, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, to share his latest views about the war. He urged Congress to wait until they hear testimony from Crocker and Petraeus and see a White House progress report due by Sept. 15 before judging the result of his decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq.\n“I urge members of both parties in Congress to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report.”\nBush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top government officials from Baghdad. He urged the government to respond to progress in Anbar where violence has abated after Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents teamed up with U.S. troops to hunt down al-Qaida and other extremists.\nHe also met with Sunni tribal sheiks and members of Anbar’s governing body.\n“I’m going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends,” he said.\nTo a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration’s war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein.\nEven Republicans are pressuring Bush on troop cuts. Republican Sen. John Warner surprised the White House by declaring over the summer congressional break that he wants some U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq by Christmas. He said he may support Democratic legislation ordering withdrawals if Bush refuses to set a return timetable soon.\nBush’s six-hour stay was confined to Al-Asad Air Base, an airfield that was once part of Saddam Hussein’s military.\nAnticipating criticism that Bush’s trip was a media event to buttress support for his war strategy, the White House was ready to push back.\n“There are some people who might try to deride this trip as a photo opportunity,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. “We wholeheartedly disagree.”\nHadley said Bush wanted to hear personally from commanders and from al-Maliki himself.\n“There is no substitute for sitting down, looking him in the eye, and having a conversation with him,” Hadley said. “The president felt this is something he had to do in order to put himself in a position to make some important decisions.”