President George W. Bush launched a strategic reassessment of US policy in Iraq yesterday, joined by his cabinet and military commanders at a "breakpoint" two-day meeting in Camp David that focused on how to help implement the new Iraqi government's "Maliki plan".
A senior White House official said the aim of the military discussions was not how to reduce US troop numbers but rather the implementation of specific operations - in Baghdad, the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, and in the southern city of Basra, where British troops are based.
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, is scheduled to join the strategy session today by secure video link-up from Baghdad. Discussions yesterday also focused on economic development and how to boost oil production.
US military commanders and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, were also connected by video from the Green Zone.
Confronted by growing discontent with the cost of the Iraq war among Americans in the run-up to congressional mid-term elections, Mr Bush repeatedly declared at a brief news conference: "The stakes are worth it."
Commenting on reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq had appointed a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, their leader killed last week in a US airstrike, Mr Bush said the new name would be added to "our list to bring to justice". Earlier he had asked his generals to thank US forces for bringing Zarqawi "to justice" last Wednesday.
A website used by Iraq's al-Qaeda claimed the group had appointed the previously unknown Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as its new leader. Some Iraqi officials, however, suggested that Mr Muhajer - whose name means "the immigrant" - might be a pseudonym for Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian who, according to US military officials, had been designated by Zarqawi as his successor.
Dan Bartlett, White House counsellor, described the formation of the Iraqi government of national unity and the Camp David strategic assessment as a "fundamental breakpoint" for the Iraqi people and the US mission in Iraq.
Camp David was a "soup-to-nuts look across all government agencies" to help the new government. Mr Bartlett said that on the military side, much of the focus was on "bolstering" Iraqi security forces in Baghdad under what he called the "Maliki plan", aimed at preventing suicide attacks and stopping the growing sectarian violence by dealing with militias.
