THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2008
NEWS
5A
Blood sisters
Kristin Hoppa/KANSAN
Lindsey Fetter, St. Louis senior, donates blood during the Spring 2008 blood drive on Wednesday. The blood drive runs through Friday. "I haven't donated blood in like two years," Fetter said. "I felt like this was my last hoorah for donating blood at KU." For more information on locations, times and eligibility, go to www.kubloodrive.com.
>>IRAQ WAR
Military leaders express concern for troops
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, left, U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, center, stand with President Bush at the Pentagon after a meeting with senior uniformed leadership about Iraq Wednesday in Washington. The leaders worry that U.S. troops are spread too thin and are unable to handle problems outside of Iraq.
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ROBERT BURNS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush Wednesday they are worried about the Iraq war's mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they'd go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff did say senior commanders in Iraq should make more frequent assessments of security conditions, an idea that appeared aimed at increasing pressure for more rapid troop reductions.
The chiefs' concern is that U.S. forces are being worn thin, compromising the Pentagon's ability to handle crises elsewhere in the world.
In the war zone itself, two more American soldiers were killed Wednesday in separate attacks in Baghdad, raising the U.S. death toll to at least 4,003, according to an Associated Press count. Volleys of rockets also slammed into Baghdad's Green Zone for the third day this week, and the U.S. Embassy said three Americans were seriously wounded. At least eight Iraqi were killed elsewhere in the capital by rounds that apparently fell short.
Wednesday's 90-minute Pentagon session, held in a secure conference room known as "the Tank," was arranged by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to provide Bush an additional set of military views as he prepares to decide how to proceed in Iraq once his troop buildup, which began in 2007, runs its course by July.
"Armed with all that, the president must now decide the way ahead in Iraq," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. The discussion covered not only Iraq but Afghanistan, where violence has spiked, and broader military matters, said Morrell, who briefed reporters without giving details of the discussion. Some specifics were provided by defense officials, commenting on condition
of anonymity in order to speak more freely.
The Joint Chiefs are particularly concerned about Afghanistan and an increasingly active Taliban insurgency.
The United States has about 31,000 troops in Afghanistan and 156,000 in Iraq.
U. S. forces in Iraq peaked at 20 brigades last year and are to be cut to 15 brigades, with a total of about 140,000 combat and support troops, by the end of July. A key question facing Bush is whether security conditions will have improved sufficiently by then to justify more reductions.
One of the leading advocates of Bush's troop buildup last year, military historian Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, said in an interview Wednesday that security conditions in Iraq, while better, are not good enough to justify any commitment to troop reductions beyond July.
"The military reality is that it's virtually inconceivable that it will make sense to draw down below 15 brigades this year," Kagan said.
Gates has said he would like to see the total drop to 10 brigades by the end of this year, but that now looks unlikely.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has proposed what is commonly called a "pause" to assess the impact of having withdrawn five combat brigades since December. He has argued that it would be reckless to shrink the American force so rapidly that the gains achieved over the past year are compromised or lost entirely.
Bush is expected to endore Petraeus' approach. If, as expected, Petraeus is given until August or September to weigh the effects of the current round of reductions, then it is unlikely that the force would get much below 15 brigades by the time Bush leaves office in January.
Bush is unlikely to announce his decision until after Petraeus and the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, return to Washington next month to report
The Joint Chiefs, who do not command troops but are legally responsible for ensuring the fitness of the forces they provide to commanders, have grown increasingly concerned that the weight of five-plus years of war in Iraq could create severe, long-term problems, particularly for the Army and Marine Corps.
to Congress.
In their session with Bush, the chiefs laid out their concerns about the health of the U.S. force, several defense officials said. Bush was accompanied by his chief of staff, Joshua Bolten; his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Morrell said Bush is "constantly asking the Joint Chiefs about the health of the force, about retention rates, about family life, and so that was a large part of the conversation today."
"The conversations today with the Joint Chiefs were much broader than just Iraq," Hadley said later. "It was a step-back look of what are the challenges we face here in the
The session was led by Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He presented the consensus view of the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps on Iraq strategy.
A senior administration official said the chiefs generally are in sync with Petraeus on slowing the pace of troop reductions.
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Mullen and Gates have said repeatedly that in addition to reducing troop levels in Iraq, they want to shorten tour lengths for soldiers from 15 months to 12 months as soon as possible.
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LOS ANGELES — Republican John McCain on Wednesday called anew for the United States to work more collegially with democratic allies and live up to its duties as a world leader, drawing a sharp contrast to the past eight years under President Bush.
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"Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed," the likely presidential nominee said in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs
the Los Angeles Council. "We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies," McCain added.
McCain calls for U.S. diplomacy
Coming days after his trip to the Middle East
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"We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies."
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and Europe, McCain's speech was intended to signal to leaders abroad — and voters at home — that he would end an era of what critics have called Bush's cowboy diplomacy. McCain never mentioned Bush's name, though he evoked former Democratic Presidents Truman and Kennedy.
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It was, in effect, a fresh acknowledgment from the Arizona senator that the United States' standing on the world stage has been tarnished and that the country has an image problem under Bush.
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"The United States cannot lead by virtue of its power alone," McCain said in the speech, noting that the United States did not single-handedly win the Cold War or other conflicts in its history. Instead, he said, the country must lead by attracting others to its cause, demonstrating the virtues of freedom and democracy, defending the rules of an international civilized society and creating new international institutions
Critics at home and abroad have accused Bush of employing a go-it-alone foreign policy in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when the administration spurned international calls for caution and led the invasion into Iraq.
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"We know that we have work to do," McCain told reporters later.
He said the United States must set an example for other democracies and renewed his call for creating a new global compact of more than 100 democratic countries to advance shared values and defend shared interests. Later,
JOHN MCCAIN Senator, R-Arizona
"Any president who does not regard this threat as transcending all others does not deserve
he told reporters he discussed his League of Democracies idea last week with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"If we lead by shouldering our international responsibilities and pointing the way to a better and safer future for humanity ... it will strengthen us to confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism," the four-term senator and member of the Armed Services Committee, said in the speech.
to sit in the White House, for he or she does not take seriously enough the first and most basic duty a president has — to protect the lives of the American people," Mc Cain
added, suggesting that neither of his Democratic rivals, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, understand the stakes at hand.
Democrats, in turn, chastised McCain as offering the same policies as Bush.
"John McCain is determined to carry out four more years of George Bush's failed policies," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.
McCain staunchly defending his support for a continued U.S. military mission as the Iraq war enters its sixth year and the U.S. death toll tops 4,000. He derided Clinton's and Obama's calls for withdrawal.
Clinton, for her part, seized on McCain's Iraq position, which she termed the Bush/McCain policy. "Like President Bush, Senator McCain continues to oppose a swift and responsible withdrawal from Iraq," she said in a statement.
Recalling his father's four-year absence after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, his grandfather's death a day after returning from war and his own imprisonment in Vietnam, McCain said: "I hold my position because I hate war, and I know very well and very personally how grievous its wages are. But I know, too, that we must sometimes pay those wages to avoid paying even higher ones later."
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