US: The United States is planning to send more American troops to Iraq to raise the levels above the current 135,000 as the situation deteriorates further because of increased violence and departures from the US-led coalition forces.
Some Americans "have given themselves over to the darkness of pessimism", Deputy Defence Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz complained yesterday at a House committee hearing on Iraq. In a telling moment, Democratic Congressman Ike Skelton asked him, "Are we winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people?" Mr Wolfowitz admitted problems convincing the Sunni minority they had a role in a new Iraq.
Mr Wolfowitz, who visibly irritated some senators with a half-hour speech to the Armed Services Committee, argued Iraq had seen the beginnings of a "tremendous transformation" in the year since the invasion, with improvements in healthcare, schools and other services.
As he spoke news came in of scores of deaths in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and US television showed dramatic street fighting from Falluja. Both Democrats and Republicans expressed anger at the failure of the Bush administration to shed light on its strategy for Iraq after June 30th.
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday senators demanded to know how the transfer of power could be accomplished in so little time and without sufficient troops. Talk on Capitol Hill has even turned to the prospect of reintroducing conscription, ended in the early 1970s, to bolster over-stretched military forces.
"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" asked senior Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. "Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower-middle class."
Last week the pentagon suspended for 90-120 days the return home of 20,000 troops, a quarter of them reservists and National Guards, to raise force levels to 135,000. Many service families have complained their loved ones were unable to come home after a year of duty in Iraq, where the death toll of US soldiers in April has now passed 100. At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, asked if more troops would be deployed, replied, "Are we considering it? No. But have we prepared? You bet."
The plans for fresh US troops were drawn up after it became clear that the likelihood of getting new foreign troops into Iraq after June 30th was slim and that many Iraqi security forces would refuse to fight fellow Iraqis. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Richard Myers, told Congress that the Pentagon might need more money to pay for new military deployments.
Reacting to the latest violence President Bush said the US would stand firm and refuse to negotiate with terrorists. "The Iraqi people are looking at Americans and saying, 'Are we going to cut and run again?'" he told the newspaper Association of America in Washington. "We're not going to cut and run while I'm in the Oval Office." He condemned the attacks in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. "They attacked today in Basra. Killed innocent Iraqis. They attacked today in Riyadh. They attack all the time. They'd like to attack us again, by the way. We have to be effective to stop them. There are no negotiations with these terrorists. It's important we find them before they come here again." Defending his support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon he said that "The whole world should have said, 'Thank you Ariel', for withdrawing from Gaza." Instead, he said, "There was kind of silence, wasn't there?"
President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney will appear on April 29th before the commission investigating the September 11th terrorist attacks, an official said yesterday. The testimony will be behind closed doors and will not be on oath. No transcript will be made available.