Pat Dollard | Young Americans

WASHINGTON - President Bush has ordered a halt in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after July, embracing the recommendation of his top commander in the war. Bush says that General David Petraeus will “have all the time he needs.”

Bush announced his decision at the White House before veterans groups and an audience that included Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bush said U.S. forces have made major gains since he ordered a buildup of about 30,000 U.S. forces. He said that “we have renewed and revived the prospect of success” in Iraq.

Senior defense officials said Bush would order Army units heading to Iraq after Aug. 1 to serve 12-month tours rather than their current 15-month deployment — a move that war critics say the president had to make to ease strain on the Army.

Petraeus told Congress that it’s too early to talk about future drawdowns because the situation in Iraq remains fragile, and that while security has improved and Iraqi forces are shouldering more of the fight against extremists, Iraq still could descend again into chaos.

After Petraeus’ earlier war update in September, Bush said that the additional troops he ordered to Iraq had improved security enough that they could be pulled out by the end of July. That would bring the current level of 160,000 troops in Iraq now to about 140,000 in July. Beyond that, Petraeus wants a 45-day period of “consolidation and evaluation,” to be followed by an indefinite period of assessment before he would recommend any further pullouts.

“The president will accept Gen. Petraeus’ recommendation that we continue to bring troops home as planned, going down from 20 to 15 brigades, and then there will be a very brief period of assessment and consolidation before more recommendations on drawdowns — based on conditions on the ground — are announced,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday.

(AP)