US military commanders are re-evaluating strategy in Iraq to determine what changes are needed "to get ourselves more focused on the correct objectives," the top US general said.
"I think we have to maintain our focus on what objectives we want for the United States, and then we need to give ourselves a good, honest scrub about what is working and what is not working, what are the impediments to progress, and what should we change about the way we're doing it to ensure that we get to the objective that we've set for ourselves," Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday on CBS television.
Although he declined to state specifically what would change, Pace said what changes were needed were being evaluated by General George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, and General John Abizaid,the head of the command that oversees US forces in the Mideast, as well as the joint chiefs.
"We're making our recommendations, we're having our dialogue, and we'll make the changes that are needed to get ourselves more focused on the correct objectives," Pace said.
The direction of US policy in Iraq was receiving renewed focus following Tuesday's midterm elections, which resulted in a shift of power in Congress from Republicans to Democrats. Republican lawmakers have been generally supportive of the administration of US President George W. Bush's efforts in Iraq while congressional Democrats have been highly critical of Bush's conduct of the war.
In a sign of possible change, Bush sought the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and on Wednesday nominated former CIA chief Robert Gates to replace him, saying a fresh perspective was necessary.
Bush and his national security team are meeting tomorrow with members of a blue-ribbon commission trying to devise a new course for the war in Iraq. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, led by former secretary of state James Baker III and former Democratic representative Lee Hamilton of Indiana, was expected to report its recommendations before the end of the year.
Members of the group were scheduled to have a joint conference at the White House with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
The group will have individual meetings with Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and CIA Director Michael Hayden. They also will talk with Zalmay Khalizad, the US ambassador in Baghdad.
Gates was resigning as a member of the Iraq Study Group and will not take part in tomorrow's meetings, White House press secretary Tony Snow said. Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state in the last two months of former president George H.W. Bush's term, will replace Gates on the commission, said Anais Haase, Eagleburger's executive assistant.
Eagleburger, 76, was deputy secretary of state to Baker during the first Bush's administration and had a 27-year career as a diplomat.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of