Bush Warns Iranians

By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 11, 2007

WASHINGTON — President Bush says we are effectively at war with Iran.

Mr. Bush, in a much-anticipated televised speech to the nation last night, accused the Islamic Republic of "providing material support for attacks on American troops." Eschewing advice from his father's secretary of state, James Baker, to open a dialogue with Iran and Syria, the president said American forces in Iraq would "disrupt" attacks from Syria- and Iran-backed terrorists, "interrupt" the supply lines reaching back to those countries, and "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq." That last sentence is the closest Mr. Bush has come to announcing attacks on Iranian territory, where American intelligence and military leaders have said the most destructive improvised explosives used against American convoys are made.

The new strategy yesterday also eschewed the advice of the outgoing general in charge of Central Command, John Abizaid, and committed America to a two front war to save Iraq from Shiite death squads and Al Qaeda.

The new war strategy will focus on defeating Al Qaeda forces gathered predominantly in the Anbar province of Iraq and will officially end the American-brokered talks with Sunni insurgents in Amman. A new surge of 20,000 troops, predominately for securing Baghdad, will for the first time consider members of the Shiite Mahdi Army legitimate targets in the quest to win back Iraq's capital.

The strategy is in sharp contrast to the counsel of General Abizaid, who warned against the prospect of opening a two front war in Iraq that was narrowly avoided in 2004 when American troops faced down Mahdi Army political leader, Moqtada al-Sadr. Mr. Bush said that the plan to secure Baghdad would be developed by Iraq's leaders. But he also announced that as part of the plan, American soldiers would be embedding with the Iraqi national army units sent out around Baghdad to establish regular patrols.

A Power Point summary of the new Iraq strategy released yesterday by the White House notes that Iran has been "burrowing" Iranian actors inside the Iraqi government. Yesterday a senior administration official told reporters that members of Mr. Sadr's Mahdi army would no longer be off limits. The new war strategy also contradicts the most prominent recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, which called for opening new negotiations with Iran and Syria and also for pressing negotiations with Israel. Indeed, Mr. Bush did not specifically mention the Arab-Israeli conflict, only referencing in passing the Middle East mission this week from Secretary of State Rice as a quest for Middle East peace.

Just as the president announced yesterday the new war plan to reinforce American soldiers in the country, America's closest ally, British prime minister Tony Blair, said he saw no need to send new troops to his country's contingent stationed in Basra. The Telegraph is reporting today that later this year the British would begin to withdraw their soldiers. Mr. Blair has long advocated for new a new Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative as part of the strategy to secure the Middle East.

On the domestic front, Mr. Bush faced a Democratic Congress in near rebellion after the leaders of both chambers announced plans to hold at least a symbolic vote on his new strategy, though it is unlikely Congress will vote to cut funding for a new troop surge through the annual budgeting process.

In the speech he announced that he would form a bipartisan working group to meet regularly on strategy for the war on terror. He credited the recommendation to Senator Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut who was defeated by a challenger in his state's primary this September.

A growing number of Republicans have come out against a surge in troops. Yesterday, Senator Brownback, a Kansas Republican hoping to win his party's nomination for the 2008 presidential contest, said in Iraq that he did not favor a troop surge. One of Mr. Brownback's rivals for the nomination, Mayor Giuliani, yesterday said he supported increasing the troop presence in Iraq. Senator McCain and Governor Romney, other 2008 Republican hopefuls, also supported Mr. Bush's decision.

In the speech delivered from the White House library, the president said the current situation in Iraq was unacceptable. He also laid out how he believed last year's military offensive to secure Baghdad had failed. "There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have," he said.

The new plan for Baghdad, however, is different, Mr. Bush said. "In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter these neighborhoods — and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."

The president yesterday hammered home his view that the struggle in the Middle East was not so much sectarian as it was ideological. "On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation," he said. "On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life." Nor did the president yesterday abandon the goal of defending an Iraqi democracy. But unlike other speeches on the war, the president was careful not to raise expectations. "Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties," he said.

He said that America's commitment in Iraq is "not open-ended," and said, "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me."

In response to the speech, Senator Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, said the president's plan was to send more Americans into the "crossfire of a civil war." A statement released last night from Mr. Durbin; the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, the House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House Majority leader from Maryland said the president's plan "endangers our national security by placing additional burdens on our already over-extended military."

Senator Hagel, an anti-war Republican from Nebraska, said last night the president's new strategy would "sink us deeper into the bog of Iraq making it more difficult to get out."

Senator Clinton issued a statement saying she "cannot support" what she called Mr. Bush's "proposed escalation of the war in Iraq." She said the president's Iraq policy "has been marred by incompetence and arrogance."

A former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle, said, "It was a pretty good speech. The big question in my mind is whether we can implement some practical and prudent measures. I don't know if we can. It will depend significantly on the command in the country."

Mr. Perle said, "I don't think the additional troops are the key to the strategy he has announced, it is how effectively those troops are managed."

He said, "Bush has a decent chance of improving public opinion on this because the Democratic response was so feeble and sniping."