Bush pleads for more patience for Iraq war efforts

[rodeodance]

Source: reuters




Bush pleads for more patience for Iraq war efforts

By Jeremy Pelofsky 20 minutes ago

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience and cited progress in the past two months.


"The success of the past couple of months have shown that conditions on the ground can change -- and they are changing," he said in his weekly radio address. "We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight."
.........

Earlier this week, Bush drew parallels to the Vietnam War, raising the example of the emergence of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and violence in Vietnam after U.S. troops pulled out to warn of the consequences of leaving Iraq.

But he acknowledged that despite increasing the number of troops in Iraq to tamp down the unrelenting violence, there was growing frustration the government had not made much progress on political goals.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070825/pl_nm/usa_iraq_bush_dc;_ylt=AicH0KTuUdb2TugddUItzGOs0NUE

[liberal N proud]

1. How long and how many lives?

Too long and too many.

Get them out now!

[cali]

2. Groundhog day.

Fuck him. Painfully.

[SharonAnn]

18. We have no more patience. It's over. leave now.

[LeFleur1]

3. Progress?

Is there a stat comparison on the deaths and maimings of Iraqis during the last six years of Saddam's rule and the last six years of the Bush invasion of the country and the newly elected government? Maybe a stat comparison of the number of people living at home and working at a job?
The number of people provided with water and electricity. I'm just curious about these things.
What does progress in the country look like?

[IsItJustMe]

17. I think progress is whatever our corporate war mongering media tells you "it is".

[Why Syzygy]

4. No.

Not convinced. It's already lasted more than four years too long. Over.

[Rob H.]

5. Translation

"We're never leavin' Iraq as long as Ah'm the Deciderator. Y'all can do whutever ya want after January 20, 2009, heh heh."

[Beetwasher]

6. Bloodiest Summer Since The War Began

Yeah, progress.

[PATRICK]

7. I think

him not having a Hague noose around his neck is a remarkable sign of constraint and patience. He wants to keep pressing his luck I'm all for it if it finally removes that patience.

[TwilightGardener]

10. Yep.

[Botany]

8. "cited progress"

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/index.html

Saturday, August 25, 2007
War News for Saturday, August 25, 2007
Deutche Press-Agentur is citing a "U.S. military statement" as stating that two soldiers from the U.S. led coalition in Afghanistan were killed in a vehicle roll-over in the Kajaki district of the western province of Herat on Friday, August 24th. Two other soldiers were injured in the accident. For the time being, we are assuming these soldiers to be Americans.

_______________________

Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad on Saturday, killing seven passers-by and wounding dozens of others in an apparent sectarian attack near the capital's most important Shiite shrine. Just after noon, a bomb hidden in a parked car exploded in busy Oruba Square about 500 yards from the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim, another revered Shiite figure. A medic at the local hospital said seven people were killed in the explosion and 30 others were wounded.

#2: Gunmen attacked an Iraqi army patrol, killing one soldier and wounding two others in Mansour district in western Baghdad on Friday, police said.

#3: Police found nine bodies in different districts in Baghdad on Friday, police said.

#4: A U.S. helicopter-backed force raided a neighborhood in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, during the early hours of Saturday and arrested four members of a family after killing a civilian in clashes, local residents said. "U.S. choppers hovered in the air for three hours after clashes broke out between the raiding force and gunmen," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Najaf:
#1: Gunmen killed a man in a drive-by shooting in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.


Kut:
#1: "Gunmen belonging to Mahdi Army foiled an operation to have U.S. soldiers landed in the area of al-Tameem during the late hours of Friday," local residents from al-Jihad neighborhood, southwestern Kut, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Four U.S. soldiers were landed by a helicopter in al-Jihad but took them back after coming under thick ground fire by some Mahdi Army fighters," an eyewitness said, adding the chopper "fired back at the gunmen, killing two civilians." No comment was made by the U.S. army or the Multi-National Force (MNF) on the incidents so far.


Hawija:
#1: Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a soldier in the Iraqi army's 6th Brigade in al-Aaskari neighborhood, Huweija district, 70 km southwestern Kirkuk, wounding him, the source said, adding the injured soldier was rushed to a nearby hospital.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen killed a man in a drive-by shooting in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.

#2: another armed group kidnapped a soldier from the Oil Facilities Protection Force in the area of 1 Azar, southern Kirkuk, the same source said. Kirkuk lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.


Mosul:
#1: An explosive charge went off near an Iraqi police patrol in al-Masarif area, northern Mosul, wounding three policemen and damaging two vehicles," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

#2: A second explosive charge, which went a short while after the first, was detonated near a U.S. patrol in the neighborhood of al-Baath, eastern Mosul, wounding one man and destroying a civilian vehicle parked nearby," the same source said.

#3: A third one (explosion) in al-Maarid area, also in eastern Mosul, capital of Ninewa province, wounded another civilian, he added.


Kurdistan:
#1: Turkish artillery anew shelled areas inside Iraqi territories with no reports of casualties, an official source from the Kurdistan Democratic Party said on Saturday. "Nearly 25 artillery shells fell near villages of Kashan, Afiyliyah, and Ghali Basaqa of Zakho district and villages of Karah, Spindar and Baloka of al-Imadiyah district on Friday evening," the source, who declined to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

[still_one]

9. He will get it also. The Democrats will split in Congress will split /nt

[rodeodance]

11. "I will focus on the Middle East and why the rise of a free and democratic Iraq

Bush on Tuesday will try to build his case further for remaining in Iraq when he speaks to the American Legion annual convention in Reno, Nevada, the second of two such speeches.

"I will focus on the Middle East and why the rise of a free and democratic Iraq is critical to the future of this vital region and to our Nation's security," Bush said.

[Demeter]

12. IMPEACH! INDICT! INCARCERATE!

[scarface2004]

13. you better plead you asshole!

when are your daughters going to be deployed fuckwad??

[truthisfreedom]

14. Bush repeats himself for millionth time.

Gawd, imagine if Clinton had "pleaded" like this for everything he wanted. The thugs would have eaten him alive.

[Sagan]

15. Stall, stall, stall.. 1/2009 is all the matters to Chimpco..

If they can get out of office with the current status quo, more or less, they will be in a position to damn any withdrawals by the new President as cowardly and can forever claim that if only America had stuck with Chimpy's brilliant and steadfast plan, Iraq would have been a new Garden of Eden.

ALL Chimpco cares about is legacy right now.

Sadly, the Democrats are doing everything possible to help them along.

[Kagemusha]

16. That's sick. This 'success' is solely due to the summer heat

Year on year violence is up. All he can do is point to how May-June figures were worse because it wasn't the really hot Iraqi summer yet. This is the basis for his surge working? Disgusting.