Neutrality
Major General William Caldwell, a US spokesman, said US forces would remain as advisers with Iraqi forces to train them and ensure they remain neutral.
He said: "Their real purpose is to provide leadership, mentoring and coaching, but they in fact will be able to observe what we call professionalism to make sure [the Iraqis] are not acting in a sectarian manner out there."
Caldwell said more effort was needed by Iraqi political leaders to stem the violence.
"Until that political process gets more engaged and the political leadership and the political parties become more concerned about this than anyone else, we are not going to see a turn in the levels of violence," he said.
Al-Maliki has promised to hold a national reconciliation conference on December 16. It is unclear which factions will attend.
DOES Bush's new agenda, completely contrary to The Iraq Study Group, have neutrality in mind?
Bush likely to support "surge" of additional U.S. troops to Iraq (click on)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush is likely to support a plan for a "surge" of additional American troops to Iraq, ABC News reported Saturday.
The surge could involve more than 30,000 additional troops and last as long as two years, sources were quoted as saying. That could bring the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq to at least 164,000, the highest total since the war started in March 2003.
The White House insisted that no decisions had yet been made, and that the president continued to weigh his options.
President Bush Calls for End To Last-Minute Spending Measures in Congress (click on)
President Bush has called on Congress to implement reforms that would eliminate last-minute spending measures being added to bills.
In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush said Congress can impose more discipline on federal spending by eliminating such measures, known as earmarks. He said earmarks are usually added at the last minute, so they never get debated or discussed. He said the number of such measures has exploded in the past 10 years, from 3,000 in 1996 to 13,000 in 2006.
The president said Congress agreed to a temporary moratorium on such measures this year, but added that much more needs to be done.
THE TWO issues go together. There cannot be tax cuts and escalation of military forces without more spending cuts on domestic programs. This is not a call for fiscal restraint by Bush, this is a strategy to ignite greater war.
