No surprise: Bush soft on troop withdrawals

Says Petraeus can take ‘all the time he needs’ for further reductions

WASHINGTON. Following two days of steadfast testimony from his chief commander in Iraq, President George W. Bush said Gen. David Patraeus can take “all the time he needs” to consider further troop withdrawals after July.

Bush said Petraeus will finish the ongoing pullout of 20,000 of the U.S. troops sent to the fight last year, but then slam the brakes on more drawdowns at the end of July.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he sees no chance that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will drop to 100,000 by the end of the year, guaranteeing a heavy American military presence as the war grinds into its sixth year to the end of the Bush era.

With 285 days remaining in his presidency, Bush delivered an 18-minute progress report on the war — one of his last.

He acknowledged that the stress on U.S. forces was “real,” but said top military brass had assured him that the all-volunteer force was strong and resilient enough to win the war on terror. “The surest way to depress morale and weaken the force would be to lose in Iraq,” he said.

Critics of the president’s war policy were unfazed by Thursday’s statements.

“The president still doesn’t understand that America’s limited resources cannot support his limitless war,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.