GOP Lawmakers Edge Away From Optimism on Iraq

[ProSense]

GOP Lawmakers Edge Away From Optimism on Iraq

By Jonathan Weisman and Anushka Asthana
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 20, 2006; Page A01

Faced with almost daily reports of sectarian carnage in Iraq, congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution.

Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.) is using his House Government Reform subcommittee on national security to vent criticism of the White House's war strategy and new estimates of the monetary cost of the war. Rep. Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), once a strong supporter of the war, returned from Iraq this week declaring that conditions in Baghdad were far worse "than we'd been led to believe" and urging that troop withdrawals begin immediately.

And freshman Sen. John Thune (S.D.) told reporters at the National Press Club that if he were running for reelection this year, "you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda."

"The first thing I'd do is acknowledge that there have been mistakes made," Thune said.

Rank-and file Republicans who once adamantly backed the administration on the war are moving to a two-stage new message, according to some lawmakers. First, Republicans are making it clear to constituents they do not agree with every decision the president has made on Iraq. Then they boil the argument down to two choices: staying and fighting or conceding defeat to a vicious enemy.

The shift is subtle, but Republican lawmakers acknowledge that it is no longer tenable to say the news media are ignoring the good news in Iraq and painting an unfair picture of the war. In the first half of this year, 4,338 Iraqi civilians died violent deaths, according to a new report by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq. Last month alone, 3,149 civilians were killed -- an average of more than 100 a day.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901787.html?nav=rss_world

Had to add the emphasis. What's the hold up?

Obviously the reporter isn't a mathematician: 6,000 deaths in May and June (3,149) = 4338 in first half of the year?

Sectarian violence is a catastrophe for Iraq, says UN

· Senior official speaks of looming 'national tragedy'
· Death toll now averages at least 100 civilians a day

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday July 20, 2006
The Guardian

An escalating and vicious cycle of sectarian violence in Iraq is a catastrophe which threatens to wreck the US-backed elected government, the UN warned yesterday.

"The emerging phenomenon of Iraqis killing Iraqis on a daily basis is nothing less than a catastrophe and a national tragedy for the people of Iraq," warned Ashraf Qazi, Kofi Annan's special representative in the country. The bloodshed "threatens to erode the government's authority to enforce security and the rule of law without which no initiatives and no reforms can be implemented," he said.

He appealed to Iraq's political, religious, and community leaders to make it their "immediate and overriding priority to search for ways to end the violence and to address the issues that underlie it".

Mr Qazi made his dramatic plea after two consecutive days of attacks on Shia targets blamed on Sunnis which have killed more than 100 people.

The UN reported on Tuesday that some 6,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed over the past two months, indicating that an average of 100 are killed daily. The UN added that Iraqi health officials believed a recent estimate of 50,000 civilians killed since the 2003 US-led invasion was an underestimate.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1824634,00.html

[rfranklin]

1. Gee, the cheerleaders are turning on their quarterback...

Perhaps they feel they won't be voted "Most Popular" next semester?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. Hey, where's Faux and their good news segment?

weren't they bitching at the MSM for NOT reporting the good news?
Where's Condi and her "we've turned the corner and real progress is being made"?
Where's Mr. Last Throes?
Where's Bushie and his "we've painted some school rooms"?
Where's Billie Kristol and "It is a hand's down success story"?
Where's Uncle Don and his " We fight with the insurgency we have, not the insurgency we want"?

[Cobalt-60]

13. Hammer Time!

These creeps have been cheerleading for this debacle since the start.
Confronting them with the record allows the question : "Were you lying then or now?"
They should be hammered into the dirt with their own recorded words!

[karynnj]

3. Those numbers are sobering

and put the Kerry/Kaliazad comments in context - where Kaliazad attempted to argue Kerry's ajective "full blown" (civil war) to avoid answering whether they were in a civil war.

It is good that this report seems to have awoken some of the Republicans from the trance of just following Bush. I just wish the Democrats would have followed Kerry, rather than trying to stay so vague they would offend no one.

[rodeodance]

4. The US report got little coverage (instead the msm hit the Lebanon stuff)

[rodeodance]

5. I am glad to see this happening (FINALLY)--little by little.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Are they slow learners, or what? Oh, I forgot - they're Repugs.

Welcome to the real world, you idiots.

[blm]

7. Time for Murtha and Kerry to RESUBMIT their Iraq withdrawal plans.

.

[zbdent]

8. Jan 4, 2007, just after Dems regain control of one or both the

House and Senate ...

Republicans will be trying to paint the occupation of Iraq as something the Dems initiated ...

[ProSense]

9. U.S. says attacks in Iraq up 40 percent

U.S. says attacks in Iraq up 40 percent

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 26 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's top Shiite cleric urged his followers Thursday to refrain from reprisal violence against Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian bloodshed. The statement by Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani came as U.S. military officials reported a 40 percent increase in the daily average of attacks in the Baghdad area.

Snip...

Still, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Iraqis will be in charge of security in eight of the nation's 18 provinces before year's end. However, he said the fight against insurgents could last for years.

Al-Rubaie's comments came a week after British and Australian forces handed over security for the relatively peaceful southern province of Muthanna to Iraqi forces in the first such transfer.

"There is a detailed plan for the withdrawal of multinational forces from provinces and it started in Muthanna," al-Rubaie said. "It will be followed by other provinces like Najaf, Karbala, Maysan, the three Kurdish provinces, then Wasit."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060720143932

[blm]

10. Put those withdrawal plans back up for a vote - let's see how the debate

goes now.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Amazing

This is pretty amazing since it was only weeks ago that the GOP maintained their delusions that everything was going swimmingly over in Iraq and castigating Dems for wanting our troops out of there prematurely ("cut and run"). I have a feeling that, despite the "swagger," overheated rhetoric, and phony resolutions, Bush and most of the Repubs will be quietly supporting withdrawing our troops from Iraq sooner rather than later. I have a feeling that they are more or less putting up a "front" for the midterm elections (they don't want to look like "cut and runners" or *gasp* "flip-floppers," especially given their very public comments about the matter). As soon as the midterm elections are over I have a feeling that most of our troops will finally be out of harms way over there. Regrettably, a lot more troops will have died by the time that Bush and Repubs collectively pull their heads out of the sand.:-(

[ProSense]

12. Sen. Reid: Iraq devolves into 'civil war'

Sen. Reid: Iraq devolves into 'civil war'

Democratic leader will try to revive Senate debate on Iraq

From Dana Bash
CNN Washington Bureau
Thursday, July 20, 2006; Posted: 5:51 p.m. EDT (21:51 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Declaring that he believes the situation in Iraq has devolved into a civil war, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he plans to try to bring the war back up for debate on the Senate floor.

The Nevada Democrat said he has been "somewhat gingerly approaching this.... No longer. There is a civil war going on in Iraq. In the last two months, more than 6,000 Iraqis have been killed. That's averaging more than 100 a day being killed in Iraq and we need to make sure there is a debate on this."

Republicans questioned why Reid wants to go over old ground and were ready to highlight the divisions among Democrats once again.

Snip...

Ueland threatened that Republicans would offer a proposal from Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, which calls for U.S. troops to come home by July of 2007.

That plan garnered only 13 Democratic votes in June, and illustrated the party's divide over the issue.

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/20/iraq.democrats/index.html?section=cnn_latest

So they think this is a game?

[MH1]

14. So...does he now think it's time to pull our troops out?

Does he have the balls to admit that Kerry was right? Or will he continue to undermine the actual liberals in the Dem party?