White House says report on Iraq surge might not be definitive
Press Secretary Tony Snow says administration is not just trying to buy more time.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Friday declined to say whether the administration will be able to tell Congress in a September report if President Bush's "surge" of troops into Iraq is successful.
"I'm not going to try to prejudge," Snow said. Snow did not repudiate a statement Thursday by Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, who said it will take until November to do "a good assessment" of U.S. strategy in Iraq.
Snow did not specifically embrace the statement, and he denied that Bush is "moving the goalposts" on Congress, where many lawmakers view September as a key moment for the president to justify continuing the war. "This is not an attempt to buy more time," Snow said.
He also appeared to try to minimize the significance of Odierno's comments, saying the surge was showing significant results. Snow cited statistics to demonstrate progress, noting weapons that have been recovered by allied troops, enemy leaders who have been taken into custody, increased activity by Iraqi troops and reduced violence in Iraq's Al-Anbar province.
Snow said some of the benchmarks that will be used in the September report to evaluate progress since the troop "surge" began this spring may not be useful. Bush is not repudiating the benchmarks, according to Snow, but he wants lawmakers to consider other factors.
"You certainly will respond to your obligation to measure things in terms of those benchmarks, but there also may be other metrics that are going to be useful for members of Congress," Snow said, pointing in particular to the sentiments of the Iraqi people.
Appearing today in the Rose Garden, Bush criticized Congress for failing to pass the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill, demanding that lawmakers finish the legislation and deliver "on budget and on time" before the fiscal year ends Oct. 1.
"I submitted to Congress a Defense Department spending bill for the upcoming final year that will provide funds to upgrade our equipment for our troops in Iraq and provides a pay raise for our military," Bush said. "Even members of Congress who no longer support our effort in Iraq should at least be able to provide an increase in pay for our troops fighting there."