White House Gaggle

By Scott McClellan
Office of the Press Secretary
(El Paso, Texas)

November 29, 2005

Aboard Air Force One

En route El Paso, Texas

8:16 A.M. MST

MR. McCLELLAN: Good morning, everybody. I want to first run through the

day real quick, and then talk a little bit about tomorrow’s speech for
you all.

First of all, when we land we’re going to be in the El Paso sector and
the President will be touring the El Paso sector, along the U.S.-Mexico
border. Traveling with us today are Secretary Chertoff and Attorney
General Gonzales – they’re up visiting with the President right now. And
then following the tour, I expect the President to make some remarks to
you all about our immigration – our comprehensive approach to
immigration reform.

Then from there we’ll be going to Denver and the President will be
participating in a fundraiser for the re-election of Congresswoman
Musgrave. And that’s expanded press pool coverage. Following that, he
has a meeting with one family of a fallen soldier, and then we’ll be
returning back to D.C. this evening.

Q Iraq or Afghanistan?

MR. McCLELLAN: Iraq, yes. In terms of tomorrow, it’s an important
speech. It’s the first in a series of speeches that the President will
be making between now and the December 15th elections about our plan for
victory in Iraq. We are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to defeat the
terrorists and those trying to prevent democracy from advancing in Iraq.
And the President believes that the American people should have a clear
understanding of our strategy. And that means how we see the enemy and
how we define and achieve victory. So as part of the speech tomorrow, we
are going to be releasing a document called the "National Strategy for
Victory in Iraq." It’s an unclassified version of the plan that we’ve
been pursuing in Iraq, and it will be made available to the American
people. I think we’ll also be posting it on our website, as well.

Q When is that -

MR. McCLELLAN: Early tomorrow morning is the goal, before the networks
go on the air.

Tomorrow’s speech, as I said, it’s one in a series of speeches the
President will be giving between now and the December 15th elections.
Tomorrow’s speech will focus in great detail on one element of the
strategy, and that is the training of Iraqi security forces. One
important part of success is based on the training and capability of the
Iraqi security forces. And the President will discuss the training not
just in terms of numbers and capability, but also in terms of the
territory that Iraqi forces are controlling. Iraqi forces are
controlling more and more territory, and the President will talk about
that in his remarks tomorrow.

He will touch on the other elements of the strategy, the political side
and the economic side, but he will really spend a good bit of time
focusing tomorrow on the security side, specifically the training of
those Iraqi security forces. And he’ll talk about where the progress is
being made and how progress is being made. I noticed today there was an
op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Senator Lieberman, who has just
returned from Iraq, and he talked about the real progress that is being
made on the ground in Iraq and talked about his visit there, his travel
there and his visits with Iraqi officials and his meetings with
commanders, as well.

And I think the President will also talk about how our strategy is a
dynamic one. It’s a dynamic strategy that is based on adapting to the
enemy and adapting to conditions on the ground. It’s important that our
tactics be flexible and dynamic and that as conditions change on the
ground, we change with them. And so he’ll talk about how the training of
Iraqi forces has changed and adapted to meet the circumstances on the
ground, in his remarks. And he’ll talk about the progress that our
commanders are seeing, in terms of the training of Iraqi security
forces.

And I expect he’ll talk about as the Iraqi security forces increase
their experience and capability and the Iraqis make progress on the
political front, then we will be able to reduce the number of our troops
in Iraq, as well, but that that will be based on conditions on the
ground. It’s a conditions-based approach. I expect the President will
argue against setting arbitrary timetables or a precipitous withdrawal,
and he’ll talk about that in the remarks, as well.

So that’s really the focus of the remarks for tomorrow. I expect in
other speeches that the President will focus more on other elements of
that strategy. As I mentioned, there are really three elements to our
strategy: the political side, the economic side and the security side.

Q The President’s other speeches, do we know roughly when, where?

MR. McCLELLAN: We’ll keep you posted. Between now and the December 15th
elections.

Q How many? Roughly how many?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is the first in a series; I’d just leave it at that.

Q Is the President going to talk specific numbers, in terms of U.S.
troop levels?

MR. McCLELLAN: What do you mean, "talk specific numbers"?

Q In recent days the Pentagon has said post-election, assuming
everything goes okay, they’re going to draw down by -

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that’s an important point. I mean, we have
increased our troop levels ahead of the elections to address concerns
about an increase in violence that might come around at the time of the
elections by those who are seeking to stop the advance of democracy in
Iraq. And I think we’ve always expected that as we get by those
elections and conditions on the ground change, that we’ll be able to
reduce some of those numbers.

Q But he’s not going to go beyond that, talking about other units that
will come home?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think he’ll talk about it in the way I described
it. He’ll talk about it in terms of as the conditions on the ground
permit and as the Iraqi forces are able to take control of more
territory and the political process moves forward, then we’ll be able to
lower the number of troops we have in Iraq. In 2006, I think, you know,
the expectation is that conditions will be changing on the ground. We’ve
been making real progress with the training of Iraqi security forces and
that conditions will permit us to be able to reduce our presence.

But, again, it will always be based on conditions on the ground, and it
will be based on what our commanders say. We will look to our commanders
- and I think that’s one thing the President will emphasize in his
remarks, that it’s our commanders who should be determining what our
troop levels are in the country, and they make those decisions based on
the conditions and circumstances on the ground and that those decisions
should not be made by politicians in Washington.

Q This document that’s coming out, can you just tell us a little bit
more about what might be in that, that we haven’t seen before?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think just, generally, it’ll outline our strategy for
victory in Iraq and talk about the three different elements within that
strategy that I just mentioned. Beyond that, wait until it comes out.

Q Who wrote the -

MR. McCLELLAN: Our National Security Council, obviously, has taken a
lead in this effort. But, I mean, various people within the White House
have been involved in this. The Department of Defense obviously has been
very involved in it, as well. As I said, it’s an unclassified version of
the plan that we have had in place and the plan that we’ve been
pursuing.

Q Are we going to be shocked by anything in it? I mean, the President
has outlined the strategy before, right?

MR. McCLELLAN: What’s that?

Q Are we going -

MR. McCLELLAN: I think one purpose of providing this document is so that
the American people can have a clear sense of our strategy for success
in Iraq, and so that they can see how we look at the enemy, the nature
of the enemy that we’re facing and they can see how we define success in
Iraq and how we are going about achieving victory in Iraq. And that’s an
important thing for the American people to be able to look at and
understand.

Q Might he take questions today?

MR. McCLELLAN: I haven’t really talked to him about it. I think it’s set
up as kind of just make some brief remarks to you all, but let me check.

Q Thank you.

END 8:25 A.M. MST