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Camp David Summit to Appraise Iraq Goals: Death of Al-Zarqawi Gives Officials Impetus

Posted on: Saturday, 10 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Mark Silva, Chicago Tribune

Jun. 10--WASHINGTON -- Hoping to capitalize on the killing of militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and offer the new Iraqi government a chance for success, President Bush and key American and Iraqi government and military leaders will convene a two-day trans-Atlantic summit next week at the Camp David presidential retreat.

No reduction of U.S. military forces in Iraq is expected as a result of the meetings Monday and Tuesday, a senior administration official said Friday. Instead, the White House views this as an opportunity to give the new government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a platform to stake his priorities for the months ahead and plan how the U.S. can help him fulfill his goals.

The summit follows this week's killing of al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, but the White House maintains this session had been timed for the seating of a new government, which the Iraqi prime minister has now completed with the naming of defense, interior and national security ministers.

Yet both the Bush administration and Iraqi government now view the timing of al-Zarqawi's killing as fortuitous, with al-Maliki predicting Friday that his government will "build on the additional momentum gained" from the successful raid north of Baghdad.

Bush, who has promised that U.S. forces will start to "stand down" as Iraqi forces "stand up," said this depends on the success of the new government.

"We'll get a realistic appraisal about the capacity for standing up Iraqi troops as this new government begins to function as a government," Bush said Friday, speaking from Camp David. "Once we make those assessments, then I think I'll be able to give the American people a better feel for what 'stand up-stand down' means.

"I've told the American people I'd like to get our troops out as soon as possible," Bush added. "But the definition of 'as soon as possible' is depending upon victory in Iraq. And victory in Iraq is a country that can sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself."

Al-Maliki already has outlined some of his priorities: "kick-start" an extensive reconstruction of infrastructure damaged in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and since then, begin a "national reconciliation" among ethnic and religious factions that have been increasingly fractured with infighting that an interim prime minister described as "civil war," and "increase the intensity and efficacy" of his nation's police and military.

The White House maintains that it is essential, after more than three years of costly warfare in Iraq, that the new, democratically elected and permanently seated government succeed.

"Everybody recognizes there is a window here in which it is important for them to show success," said Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president.

At the same time, Bartlett said that next week's summit is not the place where the U.S. will start setting any timeframe for sending the more than 130,000 American troops in Iraq back to the U.S.

"I don't think the strategic premise has changed that [the number of] troops will be based on conditions," Bartlett said Friday. "This is not a meeting about draw-downs. It's a meeting about how can we best help the Iraqis secure their country."

The president, key Cabinet members, national security advisers and intelligence directors will meet at Camp David for several hours Monday morning, followed by a working lunch with experts brought in from outside. They will include U.S. military commanders in Iraq via teleconference.

On Tuesday morning, Bush and such key Cabinet members as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will hold about an hourlong meeting with al-Maliki and his top ministers.

The presidential retreat in Maryland 60 miles from Washington was not chosen so much for the significance of the place, as a time-honored setting for strategic negotiations and peace treaties, but rather for the remote setting, where leaders can work without interruption--with cell phones and pagers left at the door.

mdsilva@tribune.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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