Bush to spend week in meetings redefining approach in Iraq
2:23 p.m. Monday, December 11, 2006
President Bush is preparing to unveil his new war strategy next week. In the meantime, he'll be in a flurry of meetings.
Today, he hears from state department officials and "outside experts."
Tough choices are ahead.
"He's about to make some of the most fateful decisions of the whole time he'll be in office," said Harvard University Professor and Former Presidential Advisor David Gergen.
U.S. Casualty Report
To date, 2,926 American servicemen and women have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 2,357 have been killed in action. This statistic includes a Kansas paratrooper who was killed in Baghdad. See that story.
And Bush is under pressure to act fast.
According to a Newsweek poll 68 percent of Americans say the U.S. is losing ground in Iraq. And the political landscape there is uncertain. There are reports about a shake-up in Prime Minister al-Maliki's government - one that would change the governing coalition.
"It has to be an integrated strategy, and it has to consider the fact that events in Iraq are moving so quickly that it may be Iraq that dictates the future -- and not U.S. policy," said ABC News Consultant and Military Anaylist Tony Cordesman.
Bush's flurry of meetings continues through the middle of the week. He'll hear from military commanders and the ambassador to Iraq Tuesday, and Department of Defense officials on Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his farewell address Monday, criticized the war in Iraq.
Annan also said the Security Council should be expanded.
"Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity," Annan said.
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