Iraq

U.S. discusses speeding up Iraq transition

The U.S. administrator returns from Baghdad to join talks about turning power over to Iraqis sooner.

The Bush administration's foreign policy team Tuesday began plotting strategy with L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Baghdad, to save the troubled political transition in Iraq by accelerating the handover of power, the Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed senior U.S. officials.

Bremer returned suddenly from Baghdad to discuss various proposals, including one to hold some form of elections in Iraq, possibly within four to six months, to select a new body that would write a constitution and an executive to assume sovereign powers in Baghdad. That formula is comparable to the model in postwar Afghanistan.

In Baghdad, America's top soldier in Iraq said a "blanket of fear" that Saddam Hussein will return prevents Iraqis from giving U.S. troops intelligence vital to curb the growing insurgency - intensified attacks underlined by a late night barrage on the heart of Baghdad.

In Washington, amid growing frustration with the Iraq Governing Council, Bremer discussed several permutations of the proposals at the White House with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA director George Tenet and others.

President Bush is scheduled to participate in a second round of talks today, when U.S. officials hope to agree on a plan that Bremer would implement in Iraq, officials said.

But a decision could be delayed by divisions within the Bush administration as well as within the Iraqi Governing Council, which is made up of 24 Iraqis selected by the United States.

The U.S. shift is motivated in part by security concerns: matching the political transition to the gradual reduction of U.S. troops next year. The sooner a government that is embraced by the majority of Iraqis is in place, U.S. officials believe, the sooner stability may return, allowing troops and coalition officials to withdraw.

The Bush administration has been increasingly concerned about the political transition as a U.N.-imposed Dec. 15 deadline approaches for the Governing Council to arrange selection of a panel to write a constitution and provide a timetable for a referendum, census and the first democratic elections. But deep disagreements on the council over how to select a constitutional committee have stalled any progress.

Bremer hopes to take the administration's designated plan back to Baghdad this week to discuss with the council, the Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed U.S. officials.

The biggest disagreement appears to be the duration of the constitutional process. U.S. officials want a constitutional convention chosen and the document written well before the November presidential elections. Some council members have proposed a far lengthier process, as long as two to three years.

Bush, in a Veterans Day speech Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation, said Iraqis are on the road to assuming political control.

"The Iraqis want freedom, and the Iraqis are headed toward self-government," he said.

Bush described the conflict as contained in a compact area.

"The violence is focused in 200 square miles known as the Baathist Triangle, the home area to Saddam Hussein and most of his associates," Bush said. The full area of the Sunni Triangle, as the area around Baghdad and Tikrit is also known, is several thousand square miles.

Bush said the United States is battling terrorist groups in Iraq such as al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam.

"Foreign jihadists have arrived across Iraq's borders in small groups with the goal of installing a Taliban-like regime," he said. "Recent reporting suggests that despite their differences, these killers are working together to spread chaos and terror and fear."

The president also used his Veterans Day remarks to speak at more length than usual about the troops killed in Iraq.

"When we lose such Americans in battle, we lose our best," he said. "For their families, this is a terrible sorrow, and we pray for their comfort. For the nation, there is a feeling of loss, and we remember and we honor every name."

In Baghdad, insurgents Tuesday struck at the heart of the U.S.-led occupation for the third time in a week. They hit the presidential palace compound with a series of rockets or mortars that sent leaders of the U.S.-installed Iraqi government running to basement shelters.

Lt. Col. George Krivo, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed two explosions inside the so-called green zone, a strongly fortified area around the operations center, and one just south of it. He said that at least four vehicles were damaged, but that the strikes had missed the Coalition Provisional Authority's headquarters and there were no injuries.

At a briefing earlier in the day, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, angrily dismissed comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam and said his soldiers will try to balance between the use of overwhelming firepower and the need to win the goodwill of Iraqis. Attacks on coalition forces, he said, now average 30 to 35 a day, twice the number of two months ago.

"Given the focus we have on our offensive operations, and given the level of engagements that the enemy has chosen to move to ... we are going to have more attacks here in the next 30 to 60 days," Sanchez said.

U.S. soldiers have been killed on average of one every 36 hours since Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1.

Sanchez said insurgents have changed tactics to inflict more damage and casualties on U.S. troops while reducing their own.

"I think we have got to be realistic," he said when asked if the insurgency was worsening. "The enemy has evolved its tactics. They use mortars and rockets so as not to engage our forces."

However, he said U.S. forces intended to "get pretty tough" against the insurgency.

"The stark reality is that, militarily, they cannot defeat us, and they know it, and I remain supremely confident in this reality," he said.

"It is not Vietnam," Sanchez snapped when asked whether Iraq resembled the early days of that conflict. "And there is no way you can make the comparison."

- Information from the Washington Post and Associated Press was used in this report.

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