Bush meets with "former insurgents" who killed US soldiers; is "about to decide" Iraq's future

[Bluebear]

AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFP) — US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday for "war-council" meetings with his top military advisers and Iraqi leaders to see if a US troop buildup is working.

Bush, on his first visit to Iraq since June 2006, was accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and met up with his Defence Secretary Robert Gates and top military commanders at the desert airbase of Al-Asad in the restive Anbar province west of Baghdad.

"This is the last big gathering of the president's military advisors and the Iraqi leadership before the president decides on the way forward," said Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman travelling with Gates.
"This is very much a decisional meeting. This meeting will put him much closer to a decision if he hasn't made one yet," he said...

Travelling to Al-Asad Air Base rather than Baghdad gave Bush an opportunity to highlight the dramatic shift in sentiment in Anbar, where former Sunni insurgents have joined with US forces to fight Al-Qaeda.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jjKHiIyDQy3yJA74rByMd-fNzTRA