White House denies any timeline for Iraq
Iraq-USA, Politics, 7/9/2007

White House Spokesman Tony Snow today spoke about the US focus on Iraq saying "we want to get to a condition where the Iraqis do, in fact, have the freedom of space and the security necessary to go ahead and put together the building blocks for a civil society."

He added " That not only includes security in the streets, but it also means other things: economic development; it means a rule of law that could be administered fairly through the army, the military services and the courts; it means having electricity and water -- all of those things, the building blocks of a civil society. And that's the way the President's been expressing it from the start."

Snow said "if you have a hollowed-out Iraq that serves as a focal point for a new terrorist organization, you're going to see ripples of terror emanating out of Iraq that will spread past Iran, that will get to Pakistan, that will make their ways to Micronesia, that could jeopardize the oil states, could get across Northern Africa. That's the way it works. That's why you've got two alternatives: What are you going to plant, the seed of democracy, or the seed of terror?"

Snow denied the the administration wants a deadline saying "There's no timetable" for withdrawal. Snow also denied that there was a debate about a timetable in the White House saying "No, right now, what the discussion in the White House is, let's go ahead and proceed with what Congress, itself, decided to do just two months ago. Two months ago, Congress said, ok, we're going to do the way forward -- we will adopt the way forward, having given General Petraeus an 81-to-nothing vote in the United States Senate. And they said, but we want some reporting here. We want to get a starting point glimpse of this on July 15th, and on the 15th of September, we want recommendations from the generals about how they want to proceed after that."

Snow added "In other words, it's the same sort of approach the President has always taken, which is, let's ascertain the facts on the ground, let's see what the commanders think is going to be most successful and effective. What we're going to get in the next week is a series of reports on benchmarks, on a number of benchmarks that had been agreed by members of Congress and also laid down by this administration about how to judge where things stand -- some probably satisfactory, some probably unsatisfactory. We certainly will find out, we'll be able to read them out. But that gives you a glimpse of where, at the very earliest stages of not only a surge, but an operational surge, where all the forces are in and they're now having an opportunity to work with their Iraqi counterparts, you now have the beginning part and you'll be able to look in two months at how you proceeded on those benchmarks, and also whether generals are going to be in a position to say, we did this right, we did this wrong, this is where we need to go next."

Snow was asked that "Iraqi leaders -- having read today's New York Times -- are saying that they do not want an early US withdrawal because that would lead to all-out civil war. Isn't that the kind of leverage that the administration could use to establish not soft, undated benchmarks, but actual deadlines for actually achieving these not-yet-achieved benchmarks, with consequences?"

Snow said "It's a hard one for me to answer because really, what Foreign Minister Rubai was saying is, if you create a vacuum, you're going to reap the whirlwind; that's what he was saying. And I'm familiar with the argument. The presumption is that the Iraqis are not also serious, themselves, about trying to get this done. I think they are. It's highly complicated. You've got a lot of complex considerations. It also bears on Martha's point earlier."

Snow added "Americans want to see some political progress in Iraq. They understand what the pressures are. They hear about it all the time, I guarantee you. So it's not something of which they are blithely unfamiliar. I think they're trying hard at it and they need to keep working the issues. But it is not obvious that simply by leaving and creating a vacuum would create greater confidence and stepping forward. On the contrary, what it may lead to -- and this is something that many in the region have warned about -- is people just dividing up and taking sides and creating an even more unstable area, some siding up with the Sunni nations, some siding up with the Shia, some trying to cut their own deals."

He added "It's not necessarily the case that by trying to back out "to teach a lesson" that you would do that. What you would do is undermine an ally at precisely the point where you're starting to see some progress in going after al Qaeda, you're starting to see some progress going after Jaish al Mahdi, using the Iraqi people themselves, the very things that we've been talking about on the security front -- and creating the image or strengthening the perception that bin Laden has been trying got push around for years, that the United States is the weak horse, we cannot stand through the fight and, therefore, you cannot rely on the United States for security commitments. For that to take hold would be devastating to this country in the long run."

On the need to set deadlines with consequences to motivate the Iraqi government, Snow said "we've been through this. We've made our position clear."

Previous Stories:
  Iraq Replaces Security Panel in Basra   (7/2/2007)
  Bush: surge strategy helping Iraqis   (7/2/2007)
  Iran holds up US talks on Iraq till clarifications are made   (7/2/2007)

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