Bush: Military solution alone won't stop violence
"The events of the past month have been a serious concern to me and a serious concern to the American people," Bush said in a White House news conference.
But the president flatly rejected the idea that troops should be withdrawn on a fixed timetable and said benchmarks were a better way to manage troop levels.
"If I did not think our mission in Iraq was vital to America's security, I'd bring our troops home tomorrow," Bush said. (Watch the president explain how Iraq affects American security -- 1:52 
)
As for sending more U.S. troops to bolster the 144,000 already there, Bush said he would leave that to his top commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey.
"I will send more troops to Iraq if Gen. Casey says I need more troops in Iraq to achieve victory," he said. "That's the way I've been running this war."
The U.S. will win the war "unless we leave before the job is done," Bush said. He cautioned, however, that "a military solution alone will not stop violence." (Watch why Bush thinks the U.S. is whipping the insurgents -- 1:45 
)
"In the end, the Iraqi people and their government will have to make the difficult decisions necessary to solve these problems," he said.
Bush said the Iraq war, which he called an "ideological conflict," has had its setbacks, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Iraq, the absence of weapons of mass destruction and the loss of "some of America's finest sons and daughters."
However, achievements like the capture of Saddam Hussein, national elections and the death of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"We're also working to help the Iraqi government achieve a political solution that brings together Shia and Sunnis and Kurds and other ethnic and religious groups," the president said. "Americans have no intention of taking sides in a sectarian struggle or standing in the crossfire between rival factions."
"Despite the difficulties and bloodshed it remains critical that American defeats the enemy in Iraq by helping Iraq build a free nation that can sustain itself and defend itself," Bush said.
Bush conceded, however, that victory in Iraq is "going to take a long time" and the United States "will not put more pressure on the Iraqi government than it can bear."
"My administration will carefully consider any proposal that will help us achieve victory," he said. "It's my responsibility to provide the American people with a candid assessment on the way forward. There is tough fighting ahead. The road to victory will not be easy. We should not expect a simple solution."
Bush's comments comes amid polls that show widespread dissatisfaction with the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, and a day after the Bush administration announced this week it is tossing out its "stay the course" mantra on the Iraq war.
Repeatedly since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Bush has said the U.S. will "stay the course" in Iraq.
As recently as August, during a speech in Utah, Bush said, "If we leave the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists in our own cities. We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century." (Watch a U.S. diplomat outline a plan for securing Iraq -- 5:35 )
But no more of that from the president, said White House press secretary Tony Snow.
"It allowed critics to say, 'Well, here is an administration that's just embarked upon a policy not looking at what the situation is,' when in fact it's just the opposite," Snow said.
Bush earlier this month explained that "stay the course" was not an inflexible strategy, but rather, an adaptive one.
"Stay the course is about a quarter right," he said. "Stay the course means keep doing what you're doing. My attitude is, don't do what you're doing if it's not working -- change."
Change is exactly what Democrats, and now some prominent Republicans, have been calling for as midterm elections approach.
October has been the deadliest month for U.S. troops this year, and about 100 Iraqis reportedly are killed every day. The Bush administration is under tremendous political pressure to change course.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said as much Sunday.
"I don't believe that a shift in tactics ought to wait until after the election. There are too many casualties there," Specter said.
During the weekend, Bush huddled with his top generals at the White House to discuss Iraq strategy and what to do next. The plan, they decided, is to prod the Iraqis to take more control over their security as quickly as possible.
"It is appropriate to have benchmarks and milestones," Bush adviser Dan Bartlett said of the plan to set deadlines for solving problems in Iraq.
But Democrats say the administration's proposal is the height of hypocrisy. (Watch how Democrats were using "stay the course" against the GOP -- 2:23 )
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explained his party's skepticism to Fox News: "We set out benchmarks, we tried to get them to accept benchmarks a year and a half ago and the president called it cutting and running. Now the president is calling for benchmarks."
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.
Source: www.read1stnews.com
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