Bush left Washington last night in secrecy and arrived about 4:40 p.m. local time at the al-Asad Air Base in the Anbar province west of Baghdad, an area that administration officials cite as a success for U.S. strategy. He plans to give an address to U.S. troops and the Iraqi people later in the day, at 12:30 p.m. Washington time.

Iraqi leaders "want to know whether the U.S. is committed over the long term to stability and to helping this region confront the challenges it faces, whether it's from al-Qaeda or Iran," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president flew to Iraq.

Over the next two weeks the Congress will be debating Bush's strategy in the conflict and the Maliki government's efforts to meet benchmarks toward unifying the nation.

Army General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will testify to lawmakers the week of Sept. 10 before Bush delivers a status report on the war by Sept 15. Lawmakers have said the assessment will be crucial to determining whether Bush will be forced to begin a withdrawal of the 164,000 U.S. troops in the country.

Third Visit

Bush's visit was his third to Iraq. He made the stop on the way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Sydney. He has made two other surprise visits: Nov. 27, 2003, on Thanksgiving Day, and the other on June 13, 2006, a week after a U.S. air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq.

He was accompanied today by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and members of his National Security Council. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates flew to Iraq separately to join in the meetings at the air base along with Admiral William Fallon, the commander of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Anbar province, along with Baghdad, was a focus of the president's plan to quell sectarian violence with the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq this year.

A year ago, the province, a former stronghold of Saddam Hussein, was a lawless region and a base of operations for terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda, Hadley said. At the time, a U.S. intelligence officer said, "Anbar province is lost," according to Hadley.

Showcasing Region

Now the administration is showcasing the region. U.S. lawmakers who have visited Iraq have said military commanders there report that some Sunni tribes have assisted in the fight against the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"They have had pretty remarkable success," Hadley said. "Al-Qaeda has really been denied a safe-haven."

Still, an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies released last month concluded that such cooperation "has not yet translated into broad Sunni Arab support for the Iraqi government or widespread willingness" to work with Shiite Muslim factions.

Bush wanted to see the progress in Anbar for himself, Hadley said, as well as check on plans by local authorities to increase their ties with the Iraqi government and as they determine a roadmap to provincial elections, Hadley said.

Gauging Progress

With the war in its fifth year, Bush has characterized progress toward stability in Iraq as frustrating and slow. Still, there has been a reduction in violence in some areas, and the struggling Maliki government has passed about 60 pieces of legislation that both the Iraqis and U.S. officials say are crucial to achieving political goals.

Democrats, who hold majorities in the House and Senate, plan two weeks of hearings in the House and Senate that will include the testimony of Petraeus and Crocker as well as the recently published National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, a report by the independent Government Accountability Office and retired Marine General James Jones.

"While the president continues to stay the course and ask Americans to pay for his failed strategy in Iraq, Democrats will continue to push for a new direction in Iraq to protect our troops and make America more secure," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement over the weekend.

Skepticism in Congress

Many lawmakers are skeptical of the Iraqi government's capability to govern and are showing impatience with the administration's strategy.

Sen. John Warner, a senior Republican from Virginia who isn't running for re-election next year, said Aug. 23 that Bush should announce plans for a partial troop drawdown, perhaps 5,000 by Christmas. Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Aug. 20 that he had lost confidence in Maliki and that the Iraqi parliament should replace him.

The full contingent 30,000 extra Army and Marine reinforcements has been in Iraq a little more than two months. The president has argued they need enough time to quell the sectarian and terrorist violence that has wracked the country.

More than 3,730 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq, at least 3,061 of whom were killed in action. More than 27,600 have been wounded, 12,429 of them so seriously that they couldn't return to duty, according to Defense Department figures.

Bush's trip was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons. The president's public schedule showed him leaving today for the APEC meetings. The president left the White House just before dusk yesterday, riding through Washington's streets in an unmarked vehicle without his usual motorcade. He was whisked away to Andrews Air Force Base to an airport hanger that houses Air Force One.

Secret Service agents collected computers and other electronic devices from reporters traveling with the president.