Bush tells U.S. troops in Iraq to expect change in 2007

12/24/2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Saturday told troops spending Christmas far from their families that "the coming year will bring change" -- but no reduction in support for their service.

The president is rushing to craft a course correction for the increasingly unpopular Iraq war. New Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who returned Friday night from a three-day reconnaissance trip to Iraq, joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley and others to brief the president Saturday at Camp David.

Bush is spending the long Christmas weekend with his family at the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains. On December 26, Bush flies to his Texas ranch, where he'll be until January 1.

The president is considering adding thousands of U.S. troops to the 140,000 already in Iraq as a way to control escalating violence, particularly in Baghdad. But that is only one of several options for what is expected to be a multi-pronged new Iraq strategy that the White House said Bush would unveil sometime between the New Year and his January 23 State of the Union address.

'One thing will not change, that is our nation's support'

"If you're serving on the front lines halfway across the world, it is natural to wonder what all this means for you," the president said in his weekly radio address, taped before he left Washington for the holiday.

"I want our troops to know that while the coming year will bring change, one thing will not change, and that is our nation's support for you and the vital work you do to achieve a victory in Iraq."

Before leaving Baghdad, Gates would not say whether he supports a short-term surge of U.S. troops. He said the review process needs more deliberation, in Washington and with the Iraqis.

He said he had concluded from his talks with Iraqi leaders that improved security is possible "with them in the lead." Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, was expected to work out some of those details with Iraq's political leadership in the days ahead, Gates said.

The White House announced plans for its own review work.

Bush has scheduled a meeting of his full National Security Council on Thursday at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. That session was not designed to make final decisions, but to continue to examine options, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

In his radio address, Bush called on Americans to spend the holidays remembering troops with prayers, gifts, help for families left behind, visits to hospitals and just simple gratitude.

"Christmas reminds us that we have a duty to others, and we see that sense of duty fulfilled in the men and women who wear our nation's uniform," he said. "I urge every American to find some way to thank our military this Christmas season."