AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Sept. 3 ?? President Bush made a surprise eight-hour visit to Iraq on Monday, emphasizing security gains, sectarian reconciliation and the possibility of a troop withdrawal, thus embracing and pre-empting this month??s crucial Congressional hearings on his Iraq strategy.

His visit, with his commanders and senior Iraqi officials, had a clear political goal: to try to head off opponents?? pressure for a withdrawal by hailing what he called recent successes in Iraq and by contending that only making Iraq stable would allow American forces to pull back.

Mr. Bush??s visit to Iraq ?? his third ?? was spent at this remote desert base in the restive Sunni province of Anbar, where he had summoned Iraq??s Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and others to demonstrate that reconciliation among Iraq??s warring sectarian factions was at least conceivable, if not yet a fact.

After talks with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, Mr. Bush said that they ??tell me that if the kind of success we are now seeing here continues it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.?

Mr. Hadley, briefing reporters, recalled a military intelligence officer??s dire warning a year ago that Al Qaeda controlled the provincial capital, Ramadi, and other towns in the region. ??Anbar Province is lost,? he quoted the analyst as saying then. Mr. Hadley was apparently referring to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is foreign led. The extent of its links to Osama bin Laden??s network is not clear.

On Monday, after meeting with some of the local Sunni leaders who only months ago led the struggle against the American presence in the region, Mr. Bush held up Anbar as a model of the progress that was possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/wo...ref=middleeast

And the dems said it couldn't be done........

Have a good one!:s4:
Psycho4Bud Reviewed by Psycho4Bud on . Troop Reduction Is Possible, Bush Says AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Sept. 3 ?? President Bush made a surprise eight-hour visit to Iraq on Monday, emphasizing security gains, sectarian reconciliation and the possibility of a troop withdrawal, thus embracing and pre-empting this month??s crucial Congressional hearings on his Iraq strategy. His visit, with his commanders and senior Iraqi officials, had a clear political goal: to try to head off opponents?? pressure for a withdrawal by hailing what he called recent successes in Iraq Rating: 5