Bush Plans To Stress Next Phase In Iraq War

[grytpype]

Source: Washington Post

Bush Plans To Stress Next Phase In Iraq War
GOP Dissent Spurs Change In Message but Not Course

By Peter Baker and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; A01

President Bush, facing a growing Republican revolt against his Iraq policy, has rejected calls to change course but will launch a campaign emphasizing his intent to draw down U.S. forces next year and move toward a more limited mission if security conditions improve, senior officials said yesterday.

Top administration officials have begun talking with key Senate Republicans to walk them through his view of the next phase in the war, beyond the troop increase he announced six months ago today. Bush plans to lay out what an aide called "his vision for the post-surge" starting in Cleveland today to assure the nation that he too wants to begin bringing troops home eventually.

The White House devised the political strategy after days of intense internal discussions about how to respond to several prominent Republican senators who have broken with Bush's war policy recently. Bush decided against heeding calls to begin redeploying U.S. troops as early as this summer, but he and his team concluded that he needed to shift his message to show that he shares the goals of his increasingly restless Republican caucus and the broader public.

"Look, the president understands the American people are frustrated," said a senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging Bush. "We've been at this a long time. We've sacrificed some of our best and brightest. . . . But they want to see that we have a vision for success that will allow us to gradually downsize our role and reduce our footprint. The president needs to and wants to remind everybody that he shares that frustration."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070902031.html?nav=rss_world/mideast

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So now we know the White House response to the recent meltdown:

Bush is going to give another speech.

Is he going to change policy? No. We have to stay over there until we win. We are not winning yet but it is way to early to give up. And if we give up the terrorists win anyway.

I think Bush is going to have to be removed from office if we want a change in the Iraq policy.

[JeffR]

1. He hasn't had a new idea since he gave up coke & booze

Oh wait, he probably never did give those up... And it shows.

[Nevernose]

2. And people wonder why we don't vote?

And people wonder why som many Americans don't vote? Of those who hear this news, most of them will say, "A withdrawal just in time for the 2008 election. Great."

And then we're surprised at the cynicism.

[RoyGBiv]

3. Can I say this?

Is it still legal? Does legal even matter anymore?

Fuck you, Mr. Bush. Just ... fuck you. Go jump off a high place. I don't want to hear it. You're an idiot. Your advisers are idiots. Everything you say is wrong. You are an imbecile.

[The Count]

4. Is that Rice-a Roni advertising company still on retainer? repackaging of ol' shite

it's what they've been doing since day one.

[zabet]

5. He is going to have no choice before long.

"There is another clock, not often mentioned, that sits in the Pentagon. It is the Broken Army clock, the service timeline for an exhausted force."

"According to the Broken Army clock, troop levels will begin to wane in March 2008, no matter what Congress decides in September; the current 20 brigade combat teams will be reduced to 15 by August 2008. There is growing speculation in the military that Bush will try to pre-empt the Petraeus testimony by announcing a gradual drawdown from 20 to 15 combat brigades later this summer. "As if that isn't going to happen anyway," a senior officer told me. "But it may give us some political breathing space" — that is, it may subvert the Democrats' calls for a more rapid withdrawal — "if the President makes a big deal of announcing we're drawing down."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1638128-4,00.html

[Olney Blue]

6. The President understands NOTHING.

[aquart]

15. Make his life a misery of fear and impotent rage.

Make his guts hurt and his stomach ache. Make him worry that a bullet-proof vest isn't enough protection, he's that hated by everyone.

He wants us to be afraid. Fair is fair.

[EVDebs]

7. Resolute President, "Stay the course" mindset in concrete. nt

[mallard]

10. Re: "intent to draw down U.S. forces next year "

What that saying about a road and 'good' intentions?

Appeasement of the lackluster congressional opposition in words of false hope only.

Next year is still many US military deaths away. There won't be any de-surge.

[EVDebs]

25. Our military is too meek in response to what IT requires. The April 16, 2007 Time coverstory

should be sent to all our troops; in the meantime no one is 'signing up' and enlistments are waywayway down. The kids (and their parents even in red states) can read.

This grinding down of the military is making for stories like the FL guy who is suing to prevent yet another callup for Iraq.

This will destroy the GOP the longer this 'backstory' that the media really isn't covering well (despite the Times' article) since it is simmering within the military itself. The military is 2/3rds Republican; that number will go way way way down come the '08 election.

"Bush warned that if Democrats in Congress did not pass a bill to fund the war on his terms, "the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones." But they are ALREADY paying a price for decisions he has made, and the larger costs are likely to be borne for at least a generation....

The only way to fix the Army's woes is to effect a change in money or mind-set or probably some of each"

America's Broken-Down Army by Mark Thompson
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1606888,00.html

And the only way to fix the money and/or mindset problem is for military members and the general US populace to vote progressive ASAP and install a progressive agenda !

[FVZA_Colonel]

8. So... we're basically going to have to wait another year before we get told once again

that "we can't afford to leave at this time."

[MichiganVote]

9. Rinse repeat formula: We're making progress-We can't afford to leave-We're making progress-

[truth2power]

24. No. We will leave

WHEN ALL THE OIL IN IRAQ IS IN THE HANDS OF FOREIGN CORPORATIONS.

THAT is the benchmark and the sole determiner of when we leave. That's what Cheney and the rest of those vermin are waiting for. Nothing else matters. Wait for it.

[cliss]

11. Oh, goody.

Bush is going to show up in Cleveland, to share "his vision for the post-surge". That oughta be worth watching.

Advice to Bush: bring some REALLY heavy duty deodorant like Mitchum. You're gonna need it.

~sweaty arm pits while blabbing ~

[ngant17]

12. Iraq now sounds like a marketing strategy

and the White House is constantly re-selling and re-packaging its product, "the Iraq War", for the tax-payers.

New & Improved! Now with More Surge Power!
Redeployed for Increased Effectivness!
Downsized for Better Performance!

What's it gonna be next week?

Unfortunately, this is a harmless game only for the people in power.

As a mass-produced product, it (the "Iraq War") far surpasses any kind of defective toothpaste or contaminated pet-food coming from China. It poisons, maims and kills life on the scale of millions of innocent victims, thousands of people each and every day, many of whom are simply unwitting bystanders and have nothing to do with purchasing the 'defective product'.

It's going to be sold again and again here as long as the American people allow themselves to get ripped-off in money and lost lives.

Sufficient outcry from the public seems to be the only thing that will remove this tainted item from the shelves of the body politic.

[daleo]

13. Bush's new plan

Drop trillions of dollars on Iraq, and hope the insurgents choke on the money. And it might just work, if Haliburton doesn't hoover it up first.

[MidwestTransplant]

14. Sounds like the same plan for the last 4 years.

[chknltl]

16. Well it's about time!

He should have been stressed over the last phase, hell, most of America has been stressin over it from the start!
:eyes:

[WCGreen]

17. Oh my god.... The ass hole is coming to my town and I didn't even

hear about it...

[rodeodance]

18. "The president needs to and wants to remind everybody that he shares that frustration."

[rodeodance]

19. Hadley and Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the president's new Iraq war coordinator, met yesterday with Wa

......Hadley and Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the president's new Iraq war coordinator, met yesterday with Warner, a skeptic of the president's war policy who will manage the Republican side of debates over Iraq proposals. Afterward, Warner said he would defer making his own proposals until he hears the president report publicly this week.

War-funding legislation passed in May mandated two progress reports from the White House, the first due on Sunday and the second Sept. 15. The July report originally was seen as a midterm assessment, with the real stakes lying in the fall report by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the top military and civilian officials in Iraq, who will testify before Congress.

[radfringe]

20. what should the new "phase" be called?

my suggestion:

OPERATION DIZZY HAMSTER

[Theduckno2]

21. "...that he too wants to begin bringing the troops home eventually."

We already know he wants to bring the troops home and he plans to do it as soon as all the oil has been pumped out of the Middle East. (AHEM, natural gas too!)

The Great Decider at werk.

When the public demands a change in policy, this public servant springs to action.

He swiftly shifts his message.

He commiserates with their frustrations.

He speaks of his visions of success.

But the policy remains the same.

I just hope that on Inauguration Day 2009, George Bush leaves Washington, flies to Florida, and NASA puts him on the first manned mission to Mars. :rofl:

[Olney Blue]

23. George Bush is already bringing troops home.

[truthisfreedom]

22. Fucking FLIP-FLOPPER.

Useless piece of shit.

[donkeyotay]

26. We must wait for our dear leader to address us. No shit flinging until Codpiece speaks.

Bush plans to lay out what an aide called "his vision for the post-surge"

It will be a significant change in the message but not the course. He is one with his people, and he will annoint us with some new intentions that might move to a more limited mission, perhaps, if conditions improve, gradually, reduced footprints, downsized roles...oh ye fortunate citizens of Cleveland, you get the nectar first!