New Pentagon Plan at Odds with Iraq Study Group's (all troops stay and 'embed')

Top Military Advisers -- in Iraq and at the Pentagon -- Present Their Own Plan to President Bush

By JONATHAN KARL

The recommendations are not complete yet, but sources familiar with the reviews conducted by Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, tell ABC News that military leaders will advise the president that he change the primary mission from fighting insurgents to training and supporting Iraqi troops.

The plan for U.S. forces seems to mirror the one suggested by the Iraq Study Group. But there's one big difference.

Under the Iraq Study Group plan, released earlier this week, combat troops — about half of all the forces in Iraq — would return home by the first quarter of 2008.

But under the Pentagon's plan, those combat troops would remain in Iraq — with a new mission. Entire companies of U.S. combat forces (units of about 150 troops) could be embedded in Iraqi army and police battalions.

Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the top operational commander in Iraq told Pentagon reporters this morning, "We believe now that what we need to do is to embed those trainers, to make that organic, as part of the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police."

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Bush asks Rumsfeld to keep advising him

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. President Bush has asked outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to advise him until successor Robert Gates is sworn in, aides say.

Bush specifically asked Rumsfeld to stay in power until Gates was in place, The New York Times reported Saturday.Rumsfeld said he has spoken with Gates twice since Gates was confirmed by the Senate 95-2 Wednesday.

Rumsfeld will preside over a meeting with Bush at the Pentagon Wednesday, which will include a briefing with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the department's recommendations for a new way forward in Iraq, the Times said.

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