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White House seeks balance in message on warOfficial: 'Victory is when the president announces it'
By Dana Bash
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As coalition troops mass outside Baghdad, the White House is trying to strike a balance between talking up successes of the war with Iraq and raising unrealistic expectations of a fast victory. White House officials are also trying to strike a cautious note as it relates to achieving the stated goals of the war -- particularly finding weapons of mass destruction. After spending the week disputing accusations of a flawed battle plan by emphasizing rapid troop movement in Iraq, the Bush administration is cautioning against, as one official put it, "irrational exuberance." "I still want to caution everybody, we are still in the middle of battle... It's not over," said the senior administration official. "Victory is when the president announces it." The senior official said "there are different military tactics that can be used to accomplish that mission," and it will be up to U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks to decide how to proceed. Another official cautioned that a "military victory" is only the beginning of the process, pointing out that "the mission is two-fold: disarmament of Iraq and regime change." The White House is starting to privately warn that disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found, may take a while. "That process could take quite some time," said another administration official. "The infrastructure is well organized and extremely well-hidden." "The coalition may have freedom of movement, but you also need to know where to look, and you need to do interviews with people to figure that out. The inspectors weren't able to do that freely," said the official. On the issue of regime change, the White House is rejecting the idea of allowing an interim government made up of Iraqi exiles as a "non-starter," said the same official. "The IIA [Interim Iraqi Administration] will include membership from inside and outside Iraq, not one at the exclusion of the other," said the official. "We're talking to people at the local level right now." The timing of the creation of the new government will depend on the circumstances on the ground, officials said. Bush, speaking twice this week at military bases, talked in detail about the successes of coalition forces in the two-week-old campaign after questions were raised -- even from field commanders -- about whether troops were prepared for the kind of guerrilla fighting they have encountered. Bush, whose words were echoed repeatedly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, also cautioned that "dangerous days" lie ahead. Bush officials say as they watch waves of "despair" and "exuberance" in the press, the White House is continuing to "travel down the center path." Meeting with exilesThe president met Friday afternoon at the White House with a group of about a dozen Iraqi exiles -- Shiite and Sunni Muslims, as well as some Christians, some now American citizens. The goal of the meeting, according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, was for Bush to meet with people who lived under Saddam Hussein and allow them to talk about "their hopes and aspirations for a free Iraq because their hopes and aspirations are matched by their brothers and sisters still in Iraq." The president's message to the group will be to reassure them that, unlike 12 years ago, the U.S. will not leave Saddam in power. "The United States will see this through. It's clear from our action on the battlefield... there is no alternative other than victory," said the senior official. The White House commended the "bipartisan cooperation and speed" with which the House and Senate passed Thursday night roughly $80 billion to help fund the war. But, the senior official warned, as the bills go to conference, the Bush administration will try to maintain the "funding and flexibility necessary to respond quickly and effectively to any changing needs at home and abroad." The White House requested Congress pass large portions of the funds without detailing how they will be spent, arguing the executive branch may have to reallocate funds as the needs in the war with Iraq change. But both Republicans and Democrats have resisted, saying it is Congress' role to specify how federal dollars will be spent. The White House also opposes more than $3 billion in the bills to aid ailing airlines, calling that figure "excessive."
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