Pentagon officials said the move was meant to intensify the U.S.-led
coalition operation against Al Qaida in the provinces of Anbar, Baghdad and
Diyala to achieve significant gains by 2008, Middle East Newsline reported.
"The president requires options that would allow a short-term surge to
destroy Al Qaida and enable strategic change in Iraq," an official said.
Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has
acknowledged that the military was considering surge options. Pace said
every branch of the military was developing its own assessment of Iraq. He
said the assessments by the army, navy, air force and Marine Corps would be
submitted to President George Bush in September 2007.
"We must be prepared for whatever it's going to look like two months
from now," Pace said to reporters during a trip to Iraq. "That way, if we
need to plus up or come down."
Officials said the military, also engaged in simulations that examine
the repercussions of a withdrawal from Iraq, has been encouraged by the
early results of the U.S. troop surge. They said hundreds of Al Qaida
agents, including scores of cell leaders, have been captured or killed in a
campaign that could affect Sunni insurgency operations over the next month.
"We are in a very tough fight and making steady progress," Brig. Gen.
John Campbell, commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, said.
"While we would like to see faster progress, the enemy gets a vote."
In September, U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus,
was scheduled to submit a report on the surge policy in Iraq. Petraeus was
expected to determine whether the surge was succeeding and should be
extended.
"Right now I can't find an assessment where I would say I need more
troops," Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said. "My
assessment right now is, I need more time."
