A flurry of conflicting assessments of military and political progress in Iraq will prompt President George W. Bush and the Democrat-controlled Congress to get involved in another collision, it was reported on Sunday.
The collision will culminate in an impassioned debate over how soon U.S. forces should be withdrawn, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is expected to add fuel to the collision when he presents a report on Iraq soon, said the paper.
The general will report that the current increase in troops has improved security, and will ask that it continue.
The collision would see Democrats trying again to impose a timetable for a withdrawal and Bush continuing to resist pressure for a major change in strategy, said the paper.
But the president will weigh what aides call "adjustments" in his Iraq policy, according to the paper.
Republican members of Congress and some Bush aides have urged the president to begin laying out a new strategy for next year, when the buildup of troops is scheduled to end.
Even if the clash does not lead to an immediate change in policy, it may produce — as a side effect — an important debate over the future of the war, the paper said.
Administration officials say they recognize that the buildup cannot be sustained next year as the Army and Marine Corps run out of available troops, that political progress in Baghdad has fallen short and that U.S. strategy in Iraq must be redefined.
"But the central elements of that strategy remain unresolved: How fast will the post-buildup drawdown be? How far will it go? How will the mission of the remaining forces be defined? What kind of Iraqi political order should the administration seek?" the paper asked.
