"Evaluating" Iraqi Forces--and the Winner Is: Chaos
Bush Says War's Outcome 'Will Merit the Sacrifice' President and Petraeus Discuss Strategy as the U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Rises to 4,000 By Karen DeYoung and Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, March 25, 2008; A01 As the American military death toll in Iraq reached 4,000, President Bush conferred yesterday with top U.S. officials in Washington and in Baghdad and vowed in a public statement that the outcome of the war "will merit the sacrifice." Bush held a two-hour videoconference with Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. Petraeus reiterated his plan to halt U.S. troop withdrawals, begun late last fall, at the end of July. At that point, he has said, he will "evaluate" whether Iraqi forces and a reduced number of U.S. troops can maintain the lower levels of violence. "We have every desire to continue with the withdrawal of forces" at some time after July, one military official said. "The issue will be once we remove over 25 percent of comba…