NYT: Bush Faces a Battery of Ugly Choices on War

[brooklynite]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 — The acknowledgment by the United States Army spokesman in Iraq that the latest plan to secure Baghdad has faltered leaves President Bush with some of the ugliest choices he has yet faced in the war.

He can once again order a rearrangement of American forces inside the country, as he did in August, when American commanders declared that newly trained Iraqi forces would “clear and hold” neighborhoods with backup support from redeployed American forces. That strategy collapsed within a month, frequently forcing the Americans to take the lead, making them prime targets.

There is no assurance, though, that another redeployment of those forces will reduce the casualty rate, which has been unusually high in recent weeks, senior military and administration officials say. The toll comes just before midterm elections, in which even many of his own party have given up arguing that progress is being made or that the killing will soon slow.

Or Mr. Bush can reassess the strategy itself, perhaps listening to those advisers — including some members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the advisory commission charged with coming up with new strategies for Iraq — who say that he needs to redefine the “victory” that he again on Thursday declared was his goal.

One official providing advice to the president noted on Thursday that while Mr. Bush still insists his goal is an Iraq that “can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself,” he has already dropped most references to creating a flourishing democracy in the heart of the Middle East.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/world/middleeast/20policy.html?hp&ex=1161316800&en=97299fc9a33324bd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[C_U_L8R]

1. Especially when he looks in the mirror

[peekaloo]

2. Curt and shun.

That's My Bu$h.

Nothing sadder than an aging cheerleader who refuses to throw away the pom-poms.

[soothsayer]

7. Me, I add an N to cut, and a T to run when I think of *

[peekaloo]

8. lol....I'm with ya.

The only time I've had a post deleted was when I referred to Boo$h as a "runt". ;-)

[Webster Green]

3. He should have listened to his daddy..

Instead of trying to one-up him.

Poppy knew better than to attempt to conquer Bahgdad.

Little Lord Pissypants is a knucklehead!

[mikeytherat]

9. So true. And let's all read Poppy's "money quote" one more time:

Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep" and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Further more, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different -- and perhaps barren -- outcome.

-- George H.W. Bush in A World Transformed, page 489

mikey_the_rat

[aquart]

4. I think he should go to Iraq and personally lead a charge.

Show what a man he is.

Or go to Afghanistan. They cut off the genitals as well as the heads.

[struggle4progress]

5. Or he can leave a token force there and start another war.

[Nite Owl]

6. Wonder what it's like in the WH

these days? * must be pissed at everyone and biting off their heads. I think he gets pretty nasty when he doesn't get his way and the idea of a dem takeover and all of the getting caught for some of the things that they have done must have him in a frenzy. He's like a mad animal backed into a corner and that thought is scarey.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Bush's only solution to any problem is to launch a military assault

Did anyone every think that maybe if we provided reliable electric, water and sewage, that maybe things would calm down a bit?

We're spending a billion+ a week in Iraq, you would think we could actually 'rebuild' something and put the Iraqi people to work.

Then they wouldn't be hanging around with nothing else to do except to try to kill us.

[mikeytherat]

12. "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

mikey_the_rat

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Ugly choices of his own making

It's almost as if they want you to feel sorry for the tough situation that magically surrounded poor Mr. Bush. He's the douchebag who created this situation through duplicity and incompetence.