Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Kurdistan: Health minister: Top priority is improving primary healthcare
Posted on Friday, October 20 @ 16:46:03 PDT
Topic: Kurdistan
Dr. Abdul Rahman Yones, Kurdistan Regional Government Minister for Health, came to the UK and Germany last week to hold talks with several specialists about medical training programmes. The minister gave this in-depth interview about the health sector and his plans to improve healthcare in the Region.

Q: What are the areas for which the Ministry for Health is responsible?
Dr. Yones: We are responsible for all areas that concern the health of the population in the Kurdistan Region, including both the private and public health sectors. The health ministry is complex and includes several departments covering doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, the provision of medicine to the public and private sector, and public health awareness programmes. We are also responsible, jointly with the Ministry for Higher Education, for medical training and education.

Q: What are the goals of the ministry?

Dr. Yones: We face a very difficult task at the Ministry for Health. Firstly, we have inherited the problems that come with unifying two administrations [editor’s note: Dr. Yones referred to the pre-2006 existence of two separate administrations in the Kurdistan Region, one governing Erbil and Dohuk, and the other governing Suleimaniah]. Now that we have one unified cabinet, we are working on uniting two sets of regulations and laws from the two administrations. For example, health sector wages were different in the two areas.

Secondly, the healthcare system in Kurdistan has been poorly implemented and is antiquated, being perhaps as much as 80 years behind. The system was based on providing a completely free national health service for all, but the system deteriorated and does not function properly anymore in today’s rapidly changing environment. We are working on improving it by bringing in some modern ideas from healthcare systems around the world, such as those in Lebanon and Iran.

One of my aims is to make healthcare more efficient and economical. Currently it is extremely expensive to run, and the budget is often spent unwisely on secondary and tertiary care with little attention and funding given to the neglected but vital areas of public health and primary care. We need to improve the basics and provide better training, rather than spending most of the health budget on sophisticated procedures or specialist hospitals. I am trying to shift spending, from administration and tertiary care that benefit only 5% of the population to the primary health system that benefits 95% of the population (such as better maternity and GP services, vaccination programmes, improved casualty departments).

Q: How do you account for the problems in the healthcare system?

Dr. Yones: For decades, the Kurdistan Region was neglected and oppressed by the Iraqi central government. The central government built very few hospitals and clinics and did little to improve the health service in Kurdistan. So we inherited a region with basically very little infrastructure that we have had to build up from scratch.

We do not have the necessary vast budget to fulfil all the health system’s demands. While the public has very high expectations, it is easy to forget that we have had our own budget only since 2003. Without a budget, it is impossible to build a good system. We understand the public’s demands to see improvements to the health service, and they will take time.

Q: What policies are you putting in place to achieve your goals?

Dr. Yones: It will take many years to improve the current system, which has been in place for decades and has gone from bad to worse. However, we have started to change some of the its foundations. In the past health ministers controlled every single little decision. Sometimes these decisions were made subjectively, depending on the minister’s mood or on other politicians’ demands, regardless of any objective research or planning. I have started to decentralise the ministry and pass some of the powers down to local government and hospital managers, so that they have some independence in their daily decision-making. This leaves the ministry to deal with strategic planning, which is its main duty.

We have made several other changes: shifting spending to infrastructure, hospital casualty departments and essential laboratory equipment, rather than spending money on more sophisticated hospitals that serve far fewer people. We are also emphasising public health and primary care, for example by improving our vaccination programmes, child care, training doctors and nurses. At the moment the Ministry for Health does not receive a set annual budget, and we hope that in the new year we can flesh out our plans once we know the budget for 2007.

The purpose of my trip to Europe this month was to seek help with the policy changes that I have outlined here. Those working in the well-established German and British health systems can provide valuable advice and offer workshops and training courses for our managers and administrative staff.

Another problem is that there is no central data collection of health statistics at the health ministry; most figures are found only in the individual clinics and hospitals. We are poorly computerised, and we will try to improve on that.

We are also planning to participate in a family survey funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that will cover all of Iraq including the Kurdistan Region. This will give us some useful, quality indicators about the population’s health.

We have started and will continue to launch public awareness campaigns through television commercials, warning people about the dangers of smoking, advising them to keep medicines out of reach of children, and so on. There is also a weekly health programme on TV that features a specialist answering viewers’ questions.

Q: What is the role of the private sector in the Region’s healthcare?

Dr. Yones: The problem is that there is no distinct line between the public and private sectors in Kurdistan’s healthcare system.

At present the whole public sector is serving the private sector. Most doctors (consultants) have their own private clinics and admit their private patients to the public hospitals where they are served by the public sector junior doctors, nurses, labs and facilities. The private sector was not allowed to develop properly in Kurdistan, so it has developed within the public sector and depends on it totally. We need to draw a line between the two, to encourage the private sector to grow independently and serve the population without draining the public sector’s resources.

The new investment law passed recently by the Kurdistan National Assembly should encourage health specialists to start their own private clinics, hospitals and pharmaceutical plants, and we will support them with free land and other help. We hope that the private sector will then provide services that the public sector cannot provide by offering specialised treatments, leaving the public sector with room to provide the primary and public healthcare, which is our main concern because it affects every single person.

I am aware that the risk in our strategy is a widening gap between what the rich and poor can afford, but if we start to improve the health service from the ground up, eventually the public sector will be able to provide high quality tertiary care as well. In many parts of the Western world, the public and private sector are in healthy competition, and we want that same mix in Kurdistan. 95% of the public is using the primary care service, which should be our priority, leaving the other 5% of secondary and tertiary care for the private sector to deal with for now, hoping that in the future we can regain control of secondary and tertiary care.

Q: There has been criticism of the lack of medical ethics by healthcare workers in Kurdistan. What is the ministry doing to address this?

Dr. Yones: Unfortunately students are not taught medical ethics, communication is poor between doctors, nurses and patients, and there is no clear job description for doctors. We cannot enforce medical ethics overnight, we have to work on it by training medical staff and doctors over many years.

One important change we have made is to fix prices for consultations. Previously doctors would charge different fees depending on their mood or on the patient, charging as much as 25,000 Iraqi dinars per consultation, which is a more than a quarter of an average family’s monthly wages. So we spoke with different surgeons to come up with reasonable limits to fees for consultations and private operations. We told all the private hospitals about the new fee limit, and we are enforcing the policy. We have also informed local governments and the public about the limits.

In addition, we have shut some clinics and banned a few doctors from practising because they were involved in malpractice.

Q: What is being done for survivors of chemical weapons attacks?

Dr. Yones: This is a big problem in Kurdistan. When I visited Halabja I found that very few services were in place for the population. That part of Kurdistan has only been free for the last two years, before that it was under the control of Islamic extremists, which harmed all services in the area.

I have made a proposal to the Prime Minister’s office for a specialist 100-bed hospital to deal with chemical weapons effects, such as eye, skin, breathing, psychological and post-trauma problems, and to help rehabilitate people into the community. The plan was agreed and put on the 2007 budget, so I hope that in a few months construction can begin. I have very high hopes for this project, and if I have time I would be happy to go to the hospital once a week to manage the patients. Beyond being a hospital providing treatment, it would also be a centre for holding seminars and workshops, for inviting experts from all over the world to teach about chemical weapons injuries and treatments, and for researching and studying the effects of chemical weapons.

In addition, together with professor Anwar Sheikha, a highly specialised consultant physician working in Erbil, we aim to start a major project on the late-stage effects of chemical weapons injuries on the blood, to find out if it can cause leukaemia or other blood diseases. This will be an international project that we hope to publish in medical journals in Europe and the US. It will start by looking at 2,000 chemical weapons victims and investigating changes to their blood.

Source: KRG

....These people are completely LOONEY TUNES! With the talk earlier of trying to remove the corruption and thieves, what is the likelihood of a reval soon after 400 MILLION DINARS were just robbed?!?!?

..p.s....I'm not freaking out...just DISGUSTED!

Well it's about 3:20 in the morning right now in Iraq! Don't they uaually update the website. At like 2:00 in the morning?

Think the robber was reading this forum, and new what was comming? LOL
Seriously though, do you think they know a RV is around the corner?

Originally Posted by lonelyintexas

I agree Ward,
This is definately spin from the left. So close to the elections.
LIT

Left, right, who is saying the "truth"? I've been instructed to give the political stuff a rest, I guess we all can. The right is no "righter" or kinder than the middle or the left. Everyone's got an agenda. Those guys getting their heads and butts blown off (no opinion there, is there?) know more about the truth than any of us, for sure. Do you disagree that our guys are getting hammered? Let's just bless them and those who make the decisions and keep our own council til the "event".

(Voice of Iraq) - 10-22-2006 | This issue was sent to a friend

New York (Reuters) - The New York Times says in its issue on Sunday that the administration of President George W. Bush is preparing a draft schedule includes features specific to the Iraqi government to deal with sectarian divisions and play a greater role in securing the country.

The newspaper quoted a senior American officials as saying that work is still in the details of the plan, which will be submitted to the Nour Al-Maliki Prime Minister of Iraq before the end of the year and implemented during the next year and thereafter.

The newspaper quoted a senior official as saying Bush administration : "We are trying to find ways to make the Iraqis to intensify their efforts to leave and leave because time was running out.

"We can not stay there forever."

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that for the first time is likely to be required of Iraq to approve the agenda of the specific features such as disarming the militias and sectarian a wide range of political, economic and military efforts to stabilize the country.

The newspaper said that the plan, drafted by General George Casey and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had the two largest military officials and American civilian in Iraq.

And although the administration will not threaten to withdraw American forces, he said several officials of the newspaper that it would reflect a change in military strategy or take other action if Iraq, for approval or did not meet the criteria crucial.

The newspaper quoted a senior official of the Ministry of Defense of America participated in the preparation of the plan as saying that he had consulted with Iraqi officials on the plan and they would be asked to approve the milestone before the end of the year.

It quoted an official as saying, "If the Iraqis us on that we will have a re-evaluation" of the strategy of America.

Sotaliraq.com

(Voice of Iraq) - 10-22-2006 | This issue was sent to a friend

Baghdad (AFP) - The Iraqi capital Saturday, suicide bombings and car bomb attack resulted in five deaths on the eve of an appeal by the clerics both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis from Mecca in Saudi Arabia to put an end to ethnic violence.

At this time of calm returned to the city of Amarah in southern Iraq, after violent confrontations throughout the day between the police and elements of the Mahdi Army militia of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr occurred in new confrontations in the town of Suwayrah south of Baghdad.

It has announced the Iraqi Interior Ministry said four people were killed and 15 others were injured Saturday morning when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive charge he was carrying in a bus downtown Baghdad.

The photographer said Agence France Presse at the scene said the passengers, mostly women and children who were returning to their homes after it bought clothes and toys in preparation for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr. And scattered inside bags torn clothes, games at the site of the accident near the wreckage of the bus.

Hours after a car bomb exploded not far away from the Ministry of Health, killing a civilian and wounding three others, according to the same source.

The increased pace of attacks since the beginning of the month of Ramadan in the Iraqi capital.

In the city of Amarah (365 km south of Baghdad) returned to normalcy following the bloody clashes between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite resulted in the deaths of 24 people dead and 150 wounded, according to medical sources.

According to journalists in the city there was no record of any clashes throughout the night until the morning and members of the police and the National Guard were deployed in the streets of the city after missing by armed elements.

The Iraqi Minister of State for National Security Shirwan Alowaeli, sent by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to calm the situation that the crisis in the city on the road to treatment.

Alowaeli said in a press conference that the army now controlled the city, where calm since Friday night, police have returned to their barracks and the militia received orders not to wander in the streets.

The official added that the Iraqi authorities do not intend to impose a curfew or the use of British troops.

A British military spokesman Commandant Charlie Berberidj located in Basra in the far south of Iraq, said that the "situation is very calm but he remains very tense and could resume fighting without prior warning."

And Britain had mobilized a group of 600 fighter element of the intervention in the event the Iraqi authorities requested it.

It was between 200 and 300 element of the Mahdi Army militia seized control Friday on a number of city streets as they invaded the three centers of the security forces burned two of them.

The clashes broke out against the backdrop of the arrest of a brother of the Mahdi Army in the city by members of police intelligence, who accused him of involvement in the assassination of Director-two days before the explosion of an explosive device with four of his companions.

The new clashes broke out on Saturday between the Shiite militias and elements of the Iraqi police in the town of Suwayrah, south of Baghdad resulted in the deaths of three of them civilians, according to a police source.

The source told Agence France Presse that two of the Mahdi Army militia and civilians were killed and five others were wounded, including three gunmen in the clashes that occurred in Suwayrah 60 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.

These confrontations and increases doubts about the ability of Iraqis to take over security affairs, which is a central goal for the Americans also increased fears of a country in the grip of the militias, which the American administration bear responsibility for a large number of acts of sectarian violence daily.

On the other hand, announced that the American command in Iraq, killing one person and described as the official in the Al-Qaeda organization attributed to him many of the attacks and the arrest of seven elements in the organization Saturday during an operation in Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).

The leadership said in a statement that "the required terrorist" was in charge of the base in Ramadi, "facilitated the transfer of explosives and participated in numerous attacks against Iraqi forces and the multinational force."

The American President George Bush on Saturday consultations with his military leaders about the strategy adopted in Iraq. These consultations coincide with the growing calls to change the strategy in Iraq, less than three weeks on the parliamentary elections in November 7 and the democratic opposition, which hopes to win the control of the Congress.

It was about the 20th of clerics Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis, signed Friday evening, "a document of Mecca," which called for an end to sectarian violence, after their meeting in Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

However, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which called for the meeting Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was keen to say that this declaration was a "moral obligation", adding that the organization "does not possess a magic wand, nor do they nor any other party can control Bdmaer people."

Sotaliraq.com

French oil group denies purchase of smuggled Iraqi oil


Xinhua - English 2006-10-20 18:42:13

PARIS, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- French oil group Total said on Friday that it had never purchased oil that has been smuggled illegally from Iraq.

"The group has never purchased, either directly or indirectly, oil that has been smuggled illegally from Iraq," Total said in a statement posted early Friday on its website.

"We repeat that at no time did the group get around the UN embargo against Iraq," it said, referring to UN sanctions put in place in 1996 against Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power.

The group also expressed its full support for its deputy chief executive Christophe de Margerie, 55, who was placed under investigation on Thursday as part of a probe into whether or not Total had made illegal payments to gain access to foreign markets and had breached the UN embargo.

Editor: Yan Liang
E-mail Us

ABC News: Bush, Top Generals Review Iraq Strategy

Bush, Top Generals Review Iraq Strategy
Bush, Top Generals Review Iraq StrategyBush Meeting Again With Commanders in Iraq As Democrats Increase Pressure for Dramatic Changes
In this photo provided by the White House, President Bush speaks during a video teleconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, on screen, and military commanders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in Washington Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006. Pictured from left are National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on Iraq David Satterfield, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. John Abizaid and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace. (AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper)

Problems Plague Election Administrators

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON Oct 21, 2006 (AP)— President Bush is reviewing Iraq strategy with top commanders for a second day in a row as election-season pressure increases to make dramatic changes amid deteriorating conditions.

The president was to consult by video conference Saturday with Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, were participating as well.

Bush met with Abizaid on Friday at the White House.

Setting the stage for a possible announcement, the White House insisted that all that is in question is a change in tactics, not a strategy overhaul.

The meetings come at the end of a week in which the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said a stepped-up operation to secure Baghdad was failing and needed to be refocused, Republicans worried about losing ground in the midterm elections expressed fresh doubts about the war, and frustration grew with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's lack of progress in reining in militias.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters traveling with her to Asia and Moscow that Bush meets often with generals overseeing the war effort, including a similar session she attended recently at Camp David.

"I wouldn't read into this somehow that there is a full-scale push for a major reevaluation," Rice said.

On Friday, gunmen loyal to an anti-American Shiite cleric briefly seized a major southern city, an embarrassment for the local Iraqi security forces. For October so far, the U.S. death toll was at least 75 and likely to be the highest for any month in nearly two years.

"The last few weeks have been rough for our troops in Iraq, and for the Iraqi people," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "The fighting is difficult, but our nation has seen difficult fights before. In World War II and the Cold War, earlier generations of Americans sacrificed so that we can live in freedom. This generation will do its duty as well."

Bush said the violence has increased because the Baghdad campaign has put a greater number of American forces in the most violent areas and because terrorists are grasping for propaganda tools. He insisted his goal of victory in Iraq would not change. And he praised Iraq's leaders for "beginning to take the difficult steps necessary to defeat the terrorists and unite their country."

"The terrorists are trying to divide America and break our will, and we must not allow them to succeed," he said. "We will help Iraq become a strong democracy that is a strong ally in the war on terror."

However, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who holds a seat deemed safe for the GOP, said in a campaign debate Thursday she would have voted against the war had she known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction.

Democrats also kept up the pressure. In a letter to the president, a dozen House and Senate Democratic leaders urged him to bring home some U.S. troops and force the Iraqis to take more responsibility for their security. The Democrats said Bush should do more to pressure Iraqi leaders to disarm militias and find a political solution that would curb violence.

Delivering the Democratic radio response, Diane Farrell, who is trying to unseat GOP Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut, said Bush should fire Rumsfeld and Congress should establish benchmarks for Iraqis that would allow U.S. troops to leave.

"We need a new direction in Iraq. To be blunt, the president and the Republican Congress have been wrong on Iraq and wrong to keep their failed strategy," Farrell said. "An arbitrary departure date could be dangerous, but real goals for the new Iraqi government and its army are necessary."

Bush called withdrawal a retreat that "would allow the terrorists to gain a new safe haven from which to launch new attacks on America."

"We will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said.


Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Bush consults top Iraq generals

Bush consults top Iraq generals
US President George W Bush is holding a video conference with his senior generals in Iraq to discuss the escalating violence there.
Mr Bush has said they may focus on changing tactics to combat the unrest, but not the overall military strategy.

In his radio address, he said that he would employ "every necessary change" to quell the surge in attacks.

There was more violence on Saturday as four people died and 15 were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a Baghdad bus.

The bomber was aboard the bus and one Iraqi soldier at the scene told Reuters news agency that a surviving passenger said she had overheard the bomber speaking to someone on the phone just prior to the blowing himself up.

According to the AFP news agency the bus, which was set alight by the blast, was packed with women and children who had been shopping in preparation for the Eid holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In his weekly radio broadcast, Mr Bush acknowledged that Ramadan had been a "rough" period for people in Iraq, with a rise.

But he added that the US "will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete".

Mid-terms threat

His comments come amid fears that Mr Bush's Iraq policy could cost his party control of Congress in upcoming polls.

Opinion polls suggest two-thirds of Americans think the president's strategy in Iraq has failed.

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the figure could translate into catastrophic election losses in mid-term elections next month, which might see the Democrats back in power in Congress and the Bush presidency becoming the lamest of lame ducks.


Leaders of the opposition Democrat Party have sought to put further pressure on Mr Bush by calling for the start of a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

They also want the president to convene an international conference to support what they call a political settlement in Iraq.

Amid the mounting domestic pressure for a change of strategy in Iraq, Mr Bush was consulting on tactics with Gen John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, and Gen George Casey, the leader of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

"Our goal hasn't changed, but the tactics are constantly adjusting to an enemy which is brutal and violent," he said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the meeting was one of a series of regular consultations and had been scheduled "for weeks".

Amara calm

Concerns about rising violence in Iraq have been further fuelled by clashes between Iraqi police and gunmen loyal to the radical cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, in the southern town of Amara.

Medical sources say 31 people were killed in street battles on Thursday and Friday, and many more were injured.

The Iraqi army has now been deployed to quell the violence and Kareem Abdullah Shayal, one of the soldiers deployed said things were now calm in the city.

In another development, the Iraqi president's security adviser said Iraqi forces trying to improve security in Baghdad were under-funded, badly trained and poorly equipped.

Wafiq al-Samarra'i said that sometimes the insurgents and death squads had better weapons than the security forces trying to combat them.


Iraq has turned into a failed state. It's high time Bush and his followers acknowledged their failed policies and left Iraqis alone to sort out the mess that the invasion caused
Willy Kisitu
Wroclaw, Poland


The comments come a day after the US military said there had been a "disheartening" 22% rise in attacks in Baghdad this month, despite a two-month-old security operation.

Launched in June, Operation Together Forward is a joint US and Iraqi security drive in which thousands of extra troops have been deployed in Baghdad.

On Wednesday, Mr Bush said the escalation of violence in Iraq "could be" comparable to the 1968 Tet Offensive against US troops, which helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War.

With 73 US soldiers killed so far, October is on course to become the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq for two years.


Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Bush consults top Iraq generals

Published: 2006/10/21 14:55:19 GMT

© BBC MMVI

bbc article was posted at 14:55 today *saturday* so this was a current article.
the abc article seems to be written on friday for publishing on saturday, it appears as if fridays abc article was pre-written for saturday publication.

now, in these two articles it shows that they may be intentionally misleading so that we arent sure where bush is or that we are lead to believe he is somewhere he may not be!!!

" Bush met with Abizaid on Friday at the White House."

The president was to consult by video conference Saturday with Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, were participating as well.

the video conference is shown in the article for the friday meeting with cheney in the vid. the man bush was scheduled to have the vid conference with is in the picture on friday when they said he was supposedly in a video conference on saturday.


BBC NEWS | Middle East | Bush consults top Iraq generals

The president was to consult by video conference Saturday with Gen. John Abizaid,
In his radio address, he said that he would employ "every necessary change" to quell the surge in attacks.
US President George W Bush is holding a video conference with his senior generals in Iraq to discuss the escalating violence there.

but the only pictures of a vid conference taking place with these people is from friday. have you seen any photos of bush from saturday?? wonder where he was saturday if he took care of this vid conference on fri....

and another article talked about him taking an early morning bike ride but the time of publishing the article would have placed his bike ride at 2am est. on saturday mornin.

ANOTHER ONE!!
Bush Holds Strategy Session on Iraq - Forbes.com

Bush Holds Strategy Session on Iraq
By JENNIFER LOVEN , 10.21.2006, 04:13 PM

President Bush on Saturday reviewed Iraq strategy with top war commanders and national security advisers, but indicated little inclination for major changes to an increasingly divisive policy.

"Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: Our goal is victory," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal."

Under bipartisan, pre-election pressure for a significant re-examination of the president's war plan, the White House is walking a fine line.

It made sure to publicize the president's high-level meeting on the deteriorating conditions in Iraq - October already is the deadliest month this year for U.S. troops. At the same time, officials characterized the session as routine and part of a continuing discussion that seeks merely tactical adjustments to - not a radical overhaul of - war policy.

"I wouldn't read into this somehow that there is a full-scale push for a major re-evaluation," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said about the White House meeting. Rice, traveling from Asia to Moscow, stressed to reporters that Bush talks often with his generals in Iraq, and did so recently at Camp David.

The 90-minute session Saturday brought together Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East; Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley; and other officials. Participating by videoconference were Vice President Dick Cheney; Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq; and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. (picture published on friday for a meeting held on saturday?????)
The meeting followed up on Bush's half-hour talk on Friday with Abizaid. (but they just said this was supposed to be on saturday?? lol)

The White House did not allow reporters to cover either and provided few details after each, but did release an official photo of Saturday's meeting. RELEASED THE PHOTO BUT WHEN WAS IT TAKEN??? LOL OOPS!!

A White House spokeswoman, Nicole Guillemard, said it was the third in a series of consultations Bush has held recently with war commanders, and that similar sessions are planned in the weeks ahead.

"The participants focused on the nature of the enemy, the challenges in Iraq, how to better pursue our strategy, and the stakes of succeeding for the region and the security of the American people," she said.

Recent developments in Iraq and at home have put Bush in a delicate political position ahead of the Nov. 7 elections. With GOP control of Congress at stake, voters are expected to be influenced greatly by the nearly four-year-old war.

The discussion of new approaches comes as public pessimism about the war rises. Almost two-thirds in a Newsweek poll released Saturday said the U.S. is losing ground in its efforts to establish security and democracy in Iraq. An AP-Ipsos poll this month found that just over one-third of Americans surveyed say they approve of Bush's handling of Iraq overall.

Democrats are stepping up their criticism of what they call Bush's "stay the course" policy. Many contend the war was ill-advised from the start, is being mismanaged now and exacerbates the terrorism threat globally.

On Saturday, Democratic congressional candidate Diane Farrell from Connecticut said Bush should fire Rumsfeld and that Congress should set clear benchmarks for Iraqis that, when met, would allow U.S. troops to leave the country.

"We need a new direction in Iraq," said Farrell, chosen by the party to give its weekly radio address. "To be blunt, the president and the Republican Congress have been wrong on Iraq and wrong to keep their failed strategy."

A small but growing number of Republicans - even loyal conservatives who face little re-election challenge - is expressing a desire for significant change. Those voicing doubts include Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia; Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas; and several House Republicans.

Last week, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq acknowledged a stepped-up operation to secure Baghdad was failing after two months and that it needed to be refocused.

Though Bush and his aides publicly voice the utmost confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, frustration is growing with his lack of progress in reining in militias. On Friday, gunmen loyal to an anti-American Shiite cleric briefly seized a major southern city, an embarrassment for the local Iraqi security forces.

Three Marines died in combat Saturday, making October the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year and putting it on course to be the deadliest in two years.

Bush has sought to highlight good news while showing he is aware of the problems. "The last few weeks have been rough for our troops in Iraq, and for the Iraqi people," he said on the radio.

The president argues that "stay the course" is not an accurate description of an Iraq strategy that he says remains nimble in the face of shifting circumstances.

"Our commanders on the ground are constantly adjusting their approach to stay ahead of the enemy, particularly in Baghdad," Bush said.

In other similar statements, the White House has appeared in recent days to be setting the stage for an announcement and trying to manage the expectations for what that could be.

An independent commission led by former secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana is not expected to make its recommendations for a new strategy until December or January. But Bush and his aides have rejected the most drastic ideas that some have floated, such as partitioning Iraq into semiautonomous Shiite, Sunni and Kurd regions or setting a timetable for a phased withdrawal of troops.

On Friday, Rumsfeld said U.S. officials, including Casey and Khalikzad, are working with the Iraqi government to develop projections as to when they think they can pass off various pieces of responsibility for both security and governing. He provided no detail about specific benchmarks and emphasized that whatever expectations are set for the Iraqi government would not be set in stone.

"The biggest mistake would be to not pass things over to the Iraqis, create a dependency on their part, instead of developing strength and capacity and competence," he said. "It's their country, they're going to have to govern it, they're going to have to provide security for it, and they're going to have to do it sooner rather than later."



Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

ok, so, where is bush? is this like a waldo search??? lol
if you ask me i would say he went to baghdad and its being VERY highly guarded naturally. just like when he went to bed the last time then dashed out and flew to baghdad in the middle of the night.

Originally Posted by goldraker

Well it's about 3:20 in the morning right now in Iraq! Don't they uaually update the website. At like 2:00 in the morning?

what would they be doing having auctions and updating the site in the middle of the night? no, they have the auction at 10:30 and is published at 11:30 so we usually can pick it up here in the states about fifteen minutes later.

that would be 12:45am adt, 1:45am pdt, 2:45am mdt, 3:45am cdt, 4:45am edt.