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? Force Base North. Las / ' & / m^egas / / : A irport f / 50 CENTS N Q V E M B E R ' 4 , 2 0 0 4 som elrtR big tJ.S. ||sl§ REVIEW-JOURNAL WIRE SERVICES WASHINGTON President Bush’s election victory Tues­day confronted him with one overriding challenge in the Iraq war: die need to bring to­gether allies so Iraq can pull o ff elections in January and the U.S. can begin withdraw­ing its forces. Hungary’s announcement W ednesday that it won’t keep its troops in Iraq beyond March underscores die uncer­tainty: W ill international sup­port for the war, m ilitary or otherw ise, grow or shrink? | The answer to that question w ill go a long way in determ in­ing when Bush might be able to reduce the number o f U.S. troops in Iraq and reduce U.S. taxpayers’ huge financial in­vestm ent without risking a collapse into civil war. About 32 countries have committed 22,000 troops to the effort in Iraq, the largest num­ber, 9,000, from B ritain Sev­eral have pledged to withdraw forces as the violence escalat­ed in recent months. NATO nations have agreed to help train Iraq security forces, but they have balked at sending troops. “This is a George Bush project, and it’s going to stay that I way,” said M ichael O’Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution H e expects little new help from other nations and thinks Bush socm w ill begin talking more openly about an Iraq ex­it strategy. In his victory speech W ednesday, Bush mentioned bringing the troops home. “We’ll help the em erging dem ocracies of Iraq and ? SEE IRAQ PAGE 12A SOURCE: Bureau of land Management MIKE JOHNSON/REVIEW-JQURNAL Rare plant species found, altering developers plans Byj.M.KAUL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . ? :? ' _ REVIEW-JOURNAL Much like the endangered desert tortoise 15 years ago, the surprise discovery o f two rare plant species threatens to foil developers’ plans to erect thousands of hom es on a vast swath of vacant land in the northern Las V egas Valley. The U.S. governm ent is moving to preserve about 8,000 acres o f land that had been slated for public auction after botanists surveying the area found Las V egas bear-poppy, which is protected un­der state law as critically en­dangered, as w ell as a newly identified variety o f Las Ve­gas buckwheat, which the gov­ernm ent is considering pro­tecting under the Endangered Species Act. The highly unexpected de­velopm ent surfaced at W ednesday’s Las V egas City Council m eeting, at which council m em bers w ere told the detection o f the plants probably w ill delay the Bu­reau o f Land M anagement auction o f federal lands sched­uled for Feb. 2. “They dropped the nuclear bomb on us,” form er U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, now a private attorney retained by the coun­cil, said o f the BLM. “It’s an effective moratorium (on de­velopm ent). ... This does have significant im plications for the city.” ; . It has even more serious un-plications for future develop­ment in North Las Vegas, w here more o f the affected land is located. Bryan told the council its m unicipal neighbor to the north already has hired an expert who m ight help the city challenge the ? SEE PLANTS PAGE 11A I ^mi ii iiilimljffll Almanac . . . . . . . 10A Classified 5* xSB# teas Astrocast 4E Comics . . 1 m Business . . . . . . . ID Deaths . . . 1F Health , . . . . . . . 22A Movies . IOC Living , Nevada -. ’ a ? % - • . . 6B Lottery • * 9 f£ •* *? * ?.» 3***A** Opinion , . 7 E QuidcRead . . . . . . 3A Television . , . 1B Scoreboard . . . . . 8C Variety . . . ;. 8B Sports V . . . . . ? . . . 1C Weather .. ^ © 2004, Stephens M e d ia G roup •• 4E Vol,TO O , No. 127,82 pages . 23A . _ -----------------------