| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"PagCal" |
| Date: |
14 Mar 2006 03:57:55 AM |
| Object: |
Bush Flip-Flops - Announces Departure Schedule in Iraq |
Just in time for the US elections! Huray!
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Bush Sets Target for Transition In Iraq
Country's Troops to Take Lead This Year
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 14, 2006; A01
President Bush vowed for the first time yesterday to turn over most of
Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a
specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans
alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence.
Bush, who until now has resisted concrete timelines as the Iraq war
dragged on longer than he expected, outlined the target in the first of
a series of speeches intended to lay out his strategy for victory. While
acknowledging grim developments on the ground, Bush declared "real
progress" in standing up Iraqi forces capable of defending their nation.
"As more capable Iraqi police and soldiers come on line, they will
assume responsibility for more territory with the goal of having the
Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006," he
said in a speech to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "And as
Iraqis take over more territory, this frees American and coalition
forces to concentrate on training and on hunting down high-value targets
like the terrorist [Abu Musab al-] Zarqawi and his associates."
The president made no commitments about withdrawing U.S. troops, but he
repeated his general formula that Americans could come home as Iraqis
eventually take over the fight. He also used the speech to urge Iraqis
to form a unity government three months after parliamentary elections,
and he accused Iran of providing explosives to Shiite militias attacking
U.S. forces in Iraq.
The beginning of a new campaign to rally Americans behind the war effort
nearly three years after the U.S.-led invasion comes at a time of
deepening public misgivings about the campaign in Iraq and Bush's
leadership of it. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll this month, 34
percent of Americans surveyed said they think the president has a plan
for victory in Iraq, six percentage points lower than in December and
the lowest level recorded by that poll. By contrast, 65 percent said
Bush has no Iraq plan.
How meaningful or achievable the president's new goal is seems
uncertain. In the speech, Bush said Iraqi units today have "primary
responsibility" over 30,000 square miles of Iraqi territory, an increase
of 20,000 square miles since the beginning of the year. As a country of
nearly 169,000 square miles, Iraqi forces would need to control about
85,000 square miles to fulfill Bush's target.
What constitutes control, however, depends on the definition, since no
Iraqi unit is currently rated capable of operating without U.S.
assistance. And vast swaths of Iraq have never been contested by
insurgents, meaning they could ultimately be turned over to local forces
without directly affecting the conflict.
Bush said 130 Iraqi battalions are participating in the battle with
radical guerrillas, with 60 units taking the lead, an increase from 120
battalions and 40 in the lead when he last delivered major speeches on
Iraq at the end of 2005. But Democrats pointed out that a Pentagon
report last month showed that the number of Iraqi units rated "Level 1,"
or fully independent of U.S. help, has fallen from one to zero.
Democratic leaders hammered away at the president's latest effort to win
public support for the war. "Instead of launching yet another public
relations campaign, President Bush should use his speeches this week to
provide a strategy to bring our brave men and women home safely and
soon," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in a statement.
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.) said: "It is time for President Bush to
stop the spin and start telling the truth about the harsh realities we
are confronting in Iraq."
Others praised Bush for committing to a specific target, if not a
comprehensive timeline. "This was a step in the right direction," Rep.
Dan Boren (Okla.), a centrist Democrat invited to the speech, said in an
interview afterward. "Benchmarks set clear, defined goals, and if we see
more and more Iraqis being trained and put on the ground, then that
means we can bring more Americans home."
In his speech at George Washington University, Bush focused on the
threat of improvised explosive devices, called IEDs by troops, and said
his administration has increased funding to fight them from $150 million
in 2004 to $3.3 billion this year. In stark language, he also accused
Iran of helping the bomb makers. Just last week, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld also accused Iran of dispatching elements of its
Revolutionary Guard to conduct unspecified operations.
"Some of the most powerful IEDs we're seeing in Iraq today include
components that come from Iran," Bush said. Such actions, along with
Iran's nuclear program, he said, "are increasingly isolating Iran, and
America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats."
After a deadly spasm of sectarian conflict last month sparked by the
bombing of a Shiite shrine, the president presented a dour forecast of
continuing mayhem. "I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning
and that the road ahead will be smooth," he said. "It will not. There
will be more tough fighting and more days of struggle and we will see
more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come."
But Bush said he saw hope in the fact that the country has not fallen
into civil war, as some had forecast. "The Iraqi people made their
choice," he said. "They looked into the abyss and did not like what they
saw."
Bush vowed not to retreat in the face of violence, reading a letter from
the mother of Sgt. William S. Kinzer Jr., who was killed last year.
"Don't let my son have given his all for an unfinished job," she wrote,
according to Bush. "I make this promise to Debbie and all the families
of the fallen heroes," he said. "We will not let your loved ones' dying
be in vain. We will finish what we started in Iraq. We will complete the
mission."
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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| User: "skipjack" |
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| Title: Re: Bush Flip-Flops - Announces Departure Schedule in Iraq |
14 Mar 2006 03:34:31 PM |
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"Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly
produced in Iran."
WTF!?!? "<i>Clearly</i> produced"? What do they say "made in Iran" on
them?
I hope the American public doesn't fall for this ***** a second
time.
Like Bush himself once said: "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I
know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once,
shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."
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| User: "Bert Hyman" |
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| Title: Re: Bush Flip-Flops - Announces Departure Schedule in Iraq |
14 Mar 2006 03:45:12 PM |
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(skipjack) wrote in
news:1142372071.844357.168630@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
"Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly
produced in Iran."
WTF!?!? "<i>Clearly</i> produced"? What do they say "made in
Iran" on them?
Maybe; why don't you check it out and get back to us with what you
find?
--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |
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