White House: 'way too early to grade surge, urges patience, not a success, not a failure either.

[Philosoraptor]

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-urges-patience-on-iraq-2007-07-06.html

Reacting to recent defections by senior Republicans publicly withdrawing their support for President Bush’s Iraq strategy, the White House Friday urged lawmakers to be patient and withhold judgment on the troop surge until September.

Fratto argued that it is “way too early to give any kind of definitive grade on how the surge is doing.” He acknowledged that the White House cannot say at this point that the troop increase has succeeded, but also argued that no one can say definitively that it has been a failure.

The White House spokesman faced a barrage of questions in the wake of Sen. Pete Domenici’s (R-N.M.) announcement Thursday that he wants to see a change in the Iraq strategy. Following Sens. Richard Lugar (Ind.) and George Voinovich (Ohio), the senator is the third Republican member of the upper chamber who, within the last month, has called for a change in the Iraq strategy. Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) this week also voiced his disagreement with the administration on the issue.

The Bush spokesman also reiterated that the White House understands and shares the frustrations of lawmakers who feel that stabilization is not progressing quickly enough in Iraq.
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In America they have a whole bunch of 'White House Spokesmen' who supposedly speak for the president and his cabinet so he doesn't have to speak to us directly and so that we can't speak to him directly. The spokesman du jour says that we should all be patient until September, and to shut the fuck up and continue consuming and paying taxes in quiet desperation.

So in summary, the White House shares the frustrations of the GOP senators and the American people, those silly Iraqis just can't get their shit together, and until they all learn to behave and act like grownups, we'll all just have to be patient and go fuck ourselves.

[Old and In the Way]

1. If I were the Republican Party, I'd be seriously thinking about the future

because the American people have already decided and no amount of surges, waiting, and talking points are going to change the reality that we can't "win" in Iraq, we can only determine the magnitude of our losses.

[bdamomma]

7. the republican party is finished and done for

if they keep supporting this madness of King George.

[rodeodance]

2. Just prior to the 4th of JUly Bush gave a speech saying We must WIN---looks

like things have not changed.

[blogslut]

3. Don't be deceived

"Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you.

Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture.

Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces." --Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss

[droidamus2]

4. Obvious?

I think it's pretty obvious that Bush expects the next president to deal with getting us out of Iraq basically because he said as much. The chimp and his minions will keep playing the 'wait we finally have it figured out' game until it is too late for them to do anything. Bush's main emphasis (besides filling the pockets of his cronies with money) is to make sure he doesn't get labeled as the 'guy who lost the war in Iraq'. I figure that they will play the 'wait and see' game until early 2008 and then hope the election and his growing lame-duck status give them reason not to act. In typical Repub fashion he will then wait until the next president, hopefully a Democrat, pulls us out without a 'clear victory' and he will claim that if he had just been given full rein over the war he would have been able to win it. Repugs are good that way they always claim to know how changes would effect the past (supposed results that would always make them look better) and that 'better' things are just around the corner. Unsurprisingly we never quite get to that corner i.e. 'those tax cuts are going to be great for the economy but they haven't quite kicked in yet so we need to extend them'.

[ixion]

5. By definition, a "surge's" effect will be immediately noticable

All the troops are in place, therefore you should be able to see the effect.

We have seen this effect. It has made the situation worse, not better.

That is the evaluation at this point in time. Nothing is "definitive". That is a straw man argument.

[Philosoraptor]

6. Politicians have much more patience than the common folk.

[genie_weenie]

8. Only those who want Al Qaeda to maraud around America hate the surge

If we don't keep on keepin' on, islamocommieleftists will be here placing IEDs all along route 66! Therefore, we must kill every iraqi child to stop 1 billion islamnazis from swiming onto our shores and destroying us!

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Oh Yeah

I forgot!
GAC

[Ganja Ninja]

9. If we have to wait for this sorry excuse for a President to admit ...

failure we are condemning our troops to a bloody disaster.

[Ezlivin]

10. “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

I do think Lewis Carroll nailed it.

[Jacobin]

11. So....its not really a 'surge' then, is it. Its an escalation of indefinite

time period.

but we already knew that.

[Philosoraptor]

12. .............

[gratuitous]

14. Nail down the specifics

What will "success" look like, Mr. President? How many hours a day should the electricity be on in Baghdad, reliably and without interruption? How many bodies in a mass grave will still be an indication that we're "winning"? If a car bomb blows up only 75 people instead of 250, will you call that an "improvement"?

I want specific, objective, measurable and verifiable numbers, sir. Otherwise, you're nothing but a fraud blowing smoke. Name the numbers now, and we'll see if they pan out come September. None of this amorphous, unidentified "progress"; hard and fast numbers that aren't fudged. How about it, Mr. Decider?