Gates briefs Bush on Iraq visit

As President Bush considers launching a revised strategy for U.S. involvement in Iraq, his new Defense secretary briefed him Saturday about a three-day trip to the violence-torn country.

Sworn in Monday and returning from Baghdad on Friday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates spent an hour at Camp David meeting with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley and Hadley’s deputy.

Gates and the other aides presumably discussed with Bush a plan calling for a “surge” of fresh American combat forces to Iraq, aimed at reducing sectarian violence, especially in and around Baghdad. The White House declined to provide details of the talks.

White House spokesman Blain K. Rethmeier would say only that “the president is pleased with the progress being made” in crafting new policy.

Rethmeier said he would not confirm or deny a report in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times that top military commanders in Iraq supported the surge plan. Previously, there had been reports that many of the commanders were skeptical about what such a deployment would accomplish.

“The president is leaving all options on the table on the way forward,” Rethmeier said.

The national security team will meet again with Bush on Thursday at his ranch outside Crawford, Texas.

Bush has said he will unveil proposals early in the new year on dealing with the violence in Iraq.

The president recently called for an increase in the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps, but emphasized that he had not decided whether to send more troops to Iraq and that he wanted to review various options with Gates.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the highest-ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, and Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top Middle East commander who will step down in March, had been arguing that adding troops could delay the development of Iraqi security forces and increase anger at the United States in the Arab world.

Casey, however, has since changed course, and is now recommending an influx of new U.S. forces.

Others in the administration have urged a temporary buildup of troops, seeing such a move as perhaps America’s last chance to quell sectarian violence and strengthen the government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

In his Saturday radio address, Bush took note of the policy review. His language underscored how the administration had become less sweeping about what it hoped to achieve in the war-torn country.

“I want our troops to know that while the coming year will bring change, one thing will not change, and that is our nation’s support for you and the vital work you do to achieve a victory in Iraq,” he said.

But the president, who once stressed that his goal was establishing a stable democracy in Iraq that would serve as a model for the rest of the Middle East, did not specify what he would now consider a victory.

The U.S.-led military coalition invaded the country in March 2003 and toppled the government of President Saddam Hussein a month later.

Bush on Saturday called Tony Saca, president of El Salvador, to thank him for the recently approved eighth deployment of Salvadoran troops to Iraq.

judy.pasternak@latimes.com