Bush drops phrase "stay the course"

The Bush administration has dropped the phrase "stay the course" from discussions about Iraq amid a recent surge in violence and renewed calls in the U.S. for a different approach to the conflict.

President Bush remains committed to the goal of setting Iraq up to govern itself and take responsibility for quelling sectarian strife, Press Secretary Tony Snow said Monday. Because the administration is flexible about how to achieve those goals, he said, Bush is no longer talking about sticking to one approach.

"What you have is not 'stay the course' but in fact a study in constant motion by the administration," Snow said.

"It's never been a stay-the-course strategy," White House Counselor Dan Bartlett said on CBS' "Early Show."

As recently as August, in a Salt Lake City speech, Bush said: "We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed."

Snow also said the U.S. is pressing the Iraqi government to take more responsibility for quelling the sectarian and insurgent violence in the country, while declining to issue deadlines for achieving milestones.

"We're not in the business of issuing ultimatums," Snow said.

The White House labeled "inaccurate" a New York Times report that the administration is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to disarm militias and assume a larger security role.

But Bartlett yesterday softened the criticism, calling the story "a little bit overwritten" because in fact it was something the administration had been doing for months.

Weekend toll at 12 for U.S. forces

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military on Monday announced the deaths of two more American soldiers and a Marine on Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total of U.S. troops killed over the weekend to 12.

As of Monday, at least 2,797 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war.

U.S. soldier reported missing in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. soldier in Baghdad was reported missing late Monday, and residents said American forces sealed the central Karadah district and were conducting door-to-door searches. Other reports claimed he was an Army translator of Iraqi descent and was abducted.

A military official in Washington said the missing service member was a translator and that the initial report was he may have been abducted. An employee at Baghdad's al-Furat TV, which was raided by American forces earlier Monday, said the U.S. forces conducting the search told him they were looking for an abducted American officer of Iraqi descent who had left to join family members in Baghdad's Karadah district.

In June, two soldiers listed as missing were killed after being abducted during in an insurgent attack south of Baghdad.

Also, Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, is still missing in action after disappearing in April 2004 during an attack on a fuel convoy west of Baghdad. One private contractor also remains missing.

Tillman's brother: Iraq war an "illegal invasion"

PHOENIX — The brother of NFL player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who was killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan, has written a scathing indictment of the war in Iraq, calling it "an illegal invasion."

Kevin Tillman, a former Army Ranger, had remained silent since his brother's death in 2004, but in an article in the Web magazine Truthdig, he sharply criticizes the invasion of Iraq, the indefinite imprisonment of terrorism suspects and other events since the brothers enlisted together in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Somehow, the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes," Kevin Tillman wrote.

Compiled from Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers