Word: anbar
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President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday, leaving the White House secretly Sunday evening to fly to Al Asad airbase, in Anbar province, for meetings with U.S. military commanders, Iraqi leaders and some of the approximately 10,000 American troops stationed there. The trip kicks off a pivotal week for Bush, as Washington girds for a series of progress reports from U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus on Sept. 10 and 11 that may determine how many U.S. troops will stay in Iraq - and how long they will stay there...
...President planned to meet with local leaders and members of the central government in Baghdad, in hopes of encouraging wider cooperation between the distrustful factions. The central government, dominated by Shiites like Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is wary of the Sunni-led militias of Anbar province. Hadley said one of the purposes of the trip was to get the Anbar militias incorporated into the central government's power structure...
...Bush can expect a warm welcome at Al Asad. U.S. troop morale in Anbar province is high thanks to Marine and Army victories over al Qaeda during the past year. Bush also has some momentum behind him following a month of Iraq visits by members of Congress, in which an almost universally negative outlook was replaced by a more optimistic view, even among some Democrats. Still, polls show that 70% of Americans disapprove of the President's handling of the war; aides hope that his personal presence in the region - even on Labor Day, when news is far from most...
...over a six week period by a small group at the White House, convened by chief of staff Josh Bolten and including Hadley, vice president Dick Cheney and a handful of other top aides. Hadley said that when the President was approached about the idea of a trip to Anbar province he leapt...
...military success against al-Qaeda in Anbar province has led to a certain incoherence in U.S. policy. We are working bottom up, from the tribal grass roots, with the Sunnis ... but top down, and not very successfully, with the Shi'ite majority. According to Crocker, tribes aren't as important among the Shi'ites, who tend to organize themselves in larger structures, especially around two dominant political families, the Sadrs and the Hakims. Each family has a militia. The Sadrs have the Mahdi Army, and the Hakims have the Badr Corps, and these two forces are now at war with...