Ex-Cabinet members advise Bush

WASHINGTON -- President Bush held another meeting about Iraq on Thursday, though this one featured something unusual: critics.

Former Clinton administration diplomat Madeleine Albright and other Democrats came to the White House in a group of 13 former secretaries of State and Defense, as Bush continued new outreach on the thorny topic of Iraq.

"Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq, I fully understand that," Bush said in the Roosevelt Room. "But these are good solid Americans who understand that we've got to succeed now that we're there."

Albright and others said they offered a variety of suggestions for improvements in Iraq. Albright said she told the president that Iraq was "a war of choice, not of necessity," but now "getting it right is a necessity, not a choice."

Even some of the Republicans there had questions for the president: "Some of the things he heard he probably didn't like too well," said Melvin Laird, Defense secretary for President Nixon and author of a recent piece in the magazine "Foreign Affairs" in which he said Bush had done "an uneven job of selling his (Iraq) message."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the meeting "part of the effort to broaden the outreach."

Faced with falling public approval ratings for his presidency and for the war, Bush launched a series of speeches and events that began with the Nov. 30 release of a new "Strategy For Victory" in Iraq. He has provided statistics that he says show that Iraq's security, infrastructure and political development are improving. But he has also admitted mistakes and setbacks since the March 2003 invasion.

Polls show about half of Americans think the war was a mistake, and fewer than half -- 42 percent in a Dec. 16-18 USA Today/CNN/ Gallup Poll -- say Bush has a plan to achieve victory in Iraq.

Critics have accused Bush of having a secretive and narrow management style, restricting himself to a tight circle of advisers. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former secretary of State Colin Powell, attributed the decision to invade Iraq and other actions to a small "cabal" led by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Wilkerson, who did not attend Thursday's meeting and has emerged as a critic of the administration since leaving the State Department, said Bush's outreach effort is in part an attempt "to send a signal the administration is not so insular." But, he added, "whether that really means he's opening up, I doubt seriously."

Powell attended the meeting of former secretaries, saying later through a spokeswoman that it provided "a good exchange of views."

The meeting came on a day when at least 100 people died in new attacks in Iraq, including five U.S. troops. The ex-secretaries heard briefings from officials in Iraq via teleconference, and later had a group discussion with the president.

"It all went very quickly, frankly," said Albright, who served as United Nations ambassador and secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "It's very hard to be really able to have a sustained discussion."

Some members of past Republican administrations praised Bush's recent efforts to reach out.

Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of State for Bush's father, said, "I think we're in for a good deal more openness" on Iraq. He said the president "has got to talk about it more with the American people in detail than he has in the past."

Former Nixon Defense secretary Laird praised Bush's recent aggressiveness, saying, "In the last four weeks, he's spoken out well." Laird said he told Bush he worries about the Army having enough money. Albright said she expressed concern about America's standing in the world.

Harold Brown, Defense secretary for President Carter, said the next few months are "crucial" in Iraq and called it a "very tough situation." Asked if the secretaries were sources of advice or only window dressing, Brown said: "We'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

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