WASHINGTON, Oct 23: The White House acknowledged on Monday that it is using ‘milestones’ to gauge the progress of the Iraqi government in addressing security problems but said the benchmarks were not linked to any ultimatums.
US officials denied a weekend report in The New York Times that said the Bush administration was drafting a timetable to boost pressure on the Iraqi government to make faster progress on assuming responsibility for security.
The Times story, which quoted unnamed senior US officials, said a change in military strategy or other steps might be made if the Iraqis refused to adopt the schedule or failed to meet key benchmarks.
The White House has said the report was “not accurate.” However, White House counsellor Dan Bartlett, in a round of interviews on Monday morning talk shows, said there were indeed some benchmarks and milestones for the Iraqi government.
“I was a bit puzzled by the report over the weekend, because it was stating something that we’ve been talking publicly about for months,” Bartlett told CBS’s “Early Show.”
“Our ambassador in Iraq has been working with the Iraqi government to do just that, to find the demonstrable milestones and benchmarks along the way in which we will hand over more security control.”
Bartlett added, “I think this was a story that was a bit overwritten in suggesting that this was something new.”
FLEXIBILITY IN TACTICS: With Democrats hammering Bush over an open-ended commitment to ‘staying the course’ in Iraq, the president has sought to show flexibility in his handling of the war.
But while the White House has repeatedly said it is open to changes in military tactics, it has also suggested that wholesale revision of the Iraq strategy is not imminent.
As part of its effort to show Republicans are tougher on national security, the White House has derided Democratic calls to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, saying such a move would only embolden insurgents.—Reuters
