Bush advisers hotly debated 'surge' move

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush's decision to deploy an additional 20,000 soldiers to Iraq in a troop "surge" was reached after an intense debate, documents reveal.

Bush made the January 2007 decision in part based on an analysis done by a former U.S. Army vice chief of staff and a scholar at the right-leaning think tank the American Enterprise Institute indicating more troops could be found. At the time field commanders were advocating troop reductions in Iraq, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said based on its review of still-secret memorandums and interviews with unnamed players, Bush went ahead with the now-successful, five-brigade troop surge in a bold move to tamp down exploding sectarian violence in Iraq. Gen. George Casey Jr., the top American commander, never sought more than two brigades, the newspaper said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reportedly keen on an alternative that would have concentrated on going after Al-Qaida In Mesopotamia terrorists.

But in the end, The Times said surge a policy advocated by former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jack Keane and Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute won out.