White House: no rift with military on Iraq troops | Top News | Reuters.com

White House: no rift with military on Iraq troops | Top News | Reuters.com: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush is weighing a short-term U.S. troop increase in Iraq, a spokesman said on Tuesday as he denied reports of a rift between the White House and resistant Pentagon chiefs.

At the same time, Bush told The Washington Post he planned to expand the size the U.S. military to deal with the long-term fight against terrorism but tied his decision to a broader struggle against Islamic extremists rather than Iraq specifically.

'I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops -- the Army, the Marines,' Bush said in an interview posted on the newspaper's Web site. He gave no estimates on how many more troops might be added.

'I talked about this to (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates and he is going to ... come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea,' Bush said." Read complete post here.