IRAQ: Lip Service
25 October 2006 9:16 am by Taylor Marsh
The beauty of the bully pulpit in action. One hour coverage to rant on about Iraq where he has been AWOL for years. But benchmarks without being held accountable for not making those benchmarks means NOTHING. Should Democrats now be glad that Bush is calling for action we've been demanding for over a year? Will Maliki be able to deliver? You answer that one.
Bush's Iraq policy is a complete and total failure. However, there is an election
13 days off and Bush has to do something, because Republicans are drowning.
So today he walked out and once again rhetorically changed the policy.
There's another problem: We can't want peace more than the Iraqis. The killing will go on
until the Iraqis decide they want a government; until then chaos will rule.
Bush gave the Republicans a rhetorical bone today. Tactics are being changed, but nothing tangible can be seen and there will be no consequences in the end for Maliki.
As for permanent bases, President Bush will not commit to having none, so getting out is not a reality. That's
the bottom line; with permanent bases we are staying in Iraq. Period. I guess we should
feel lucky that he acknowledges things are tough. If he'd ever served he'd know just how tough.
Bush also rejected the idea of withdrawing troops from Iraq on a fixed timetable
and said benchmarks were a better way to manage troop levels.“My administration will carefully consider any proposal that will help
us achieve victory,” he said. “It's my responsibility to provide
the American people with a candid assessment on the way forward. There is
tough fighting ahead. The road to victory will not be easy. We should not
expect a simple solution.”Bush's comments comes amid polls that show widespread dissatisfaction with
the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, and a day after the Bush administration
announced this week it is tossing out its “stay the course” mantra
on the Iraq war.Repeatedly since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Bush has said the U.S.
will “stay the course” in Iraq.As recently as August, during a speech in Utah, Bush said, “If we leave
the streets of Baghdad before the job is done, we will have to face the terrorists
in our own cities. We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi
democracy succeed and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph
in the struggle of the 21st century.”
