With 3 Iraq Reports to Come, Bush Plans Week of Scrutiny

Iraqis pray today over the bodies of people killed in a US airstrike in Ishaqi

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — President Bush will take part in high-visibility deliberations on Iraq next week, making visits to the Pentagon and State Department as they take part in an administrationwide effort to chart a new course in the war.

Mr. Bush will also meet with a group of academic and policy experts about Iraq on Monday, officials said, and will hold a video teleconference with senior military commanders.

The flurry of conspicuous consultation, officials said, is part of Mr. Bush’s effort to come up with a new approach in Iraq under intense pressure to bring the violence there under control or begin reducing the United States’ military commitment.

Officials said it was uncertain when the president would present to the nation what he has repeatedly called “a new way forward” in Iraq, though, they said, he still hoped to do so by Christmas.

Read the rest at the NY Times