W.House defends Bush use of Iraqi body counts
Source: Reuters
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday defended President George W. Bush's rare use of a body count to describe Iraqi insurgent deaths as a way to show Americans that U.S. troops are fighting hard in Iraq. Bush said on Wednesday on a visit to the Pentagon that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed or captured 5,900 of the enemy during the months of October, November and early December. It was a rare use of a body count by the president and came after public opinion polls said many Americans are concerned about rising U.S. casualties and believe the United States is losing the war in Iraq. White House spokesman Tony Snow said one reason Bush gave the body count number was to offset concern about U.S. casualties and deaths that included 103 in October alone. "And there is quite often the impression ... that our people aren't doing anything; they're just targets. And I think there's a certain amount of unease in the American public because they hear about deaths, but they don't hear about what's going on," Snow told reporters. Presidents have shied away from giving body count numbers ever since the practice was discredited during the Vietnam war. But Bush is eager to show signs of progress at a time when Americans have become disenchanted with the Iraq war, and wants to demonstrate that his policy has not been stalled by his plans to change Iraq strategy early next year. Snow said Americans should not assume that U.S. troops "are simply dying in vain or that our men and women are not accomplishing things when they're taking on the people who are committing acts of violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis." Bush is considering options ranging from a short-term increase in U.S. troop strength in Iraq to changing the mission there from fighting insurgents to supporting Iraqi forces. The Washington Post reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq -- an option pushed by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, but instead want to strengthen the Iraqi army. That is more in line with a recommendation from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group that proposed adding more U.S. trainers to Iraqi units and put the United States in position of withdrawing most combat troops from Iraq by early 2008. Bush has refused to set a timetable for having U.S. troops out of Iraq. A senior White House official said that while Bush knows the general strategic outlines of his policy, there are a lot of decisions with "significant strategic ramifications" yet to be made. Bush this week delayed announcing his new strategy from next week to early January.
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