Report: Bush will retain Iraq troop levels

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush will announce U.S. combat troop levels in Iraq will remain unchanged for the remainder of his term, The Washington Post said Monday.

Bush will also announce further increases in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, the newspaper said, citing a speech Bush is to deliver Tuesday at the National Defense University in Washington. The White House released a copy of the speech Monday.

The expansion of troop strength in Afghanistan will include a Marine battalion in November and an Army brigade in January. The net effect of the decision will be to shift a roughly equivalent number of combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, the Post said.

The advance copy of the speech indicates Bush will tout progress in Iraq and not there are "huge challenges in Afghanistan."

"For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," Bush is expected to say. "As we learned in Iraq, the best way to restore the confidence of the people is to restore basic security -- and that requires more troops."

The White House Monday agreed with the impression contained in journalist Bob Woodward's new book that Bush ordered the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq despite opposition by military leadership.

Among other things, Woodward's "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008," focuses on the military surge Bush ordered last year. When asked whether the book was accurate in reporting that the decision to proceed with the surge was taken despite opposition from the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, press secretary Dana Perino said she thought it was.

"I can't imagine that anybody in Washington would be shocked that if you bring people together to talk about one of the most difficult problems in our time, that they might have a disagreement over what is the best option," she said during a news briefing. "And in fact, we should all want that to happen."

The decision Bush announced Jan. 10, 2007, "thankfully ... has been the right one," Perino said.