President Bush's message Thursday night to American soldiers in Iraq was this: I got you in. Someone else will have to get you out.
As is standard for Mr. Bush on Iraq, he tried to leave the opposite impression. "Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq," he said, "we can begin seeing troops come home." He even claimed that this development "makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together."
But he isn't beginning the redeployment out of Iraq that most Americans favor. He's only bringing out the extra 30,000 "surge" troops. And that will take a year.
President Bush intends to leave 130,000 troops - the same number as before the surge - indefinitely. His new slogan, "return on success," is a rehash of "we'll stand down as Iraqis stand up." That could be never. Success in Iraq, he admitted, "will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency."
Referring to a report on the lack of Iraqi progress that was to be delivered to Congress the morning after his speech, President Bush said the Iraqi government "has not met its own legislative benchmarks, and in my meetings with Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must." But what's the penalty if they don't? None. U.S. forces will stay.
The speech continued the familiar lie that Iraq and Sept. 11 are connected. Failure in Iraq, Mr. Bush said, would bring chaos and create "dangers" that "as we saw on September the 11th, 2001 ... can reach our cities and kill our people." But Iraq already is in chaos. Even the much-touted military "success" in Anbar looked paler Thursday after the leading Sunni warlord who struck a deal with the U.S. was assassinated near his own home.
Amid all of Mr. Bush's overblown claims was one decided understatement: "For most Iraqis," he said, "the quality of life is far from where it should be." Yep. The lack of electricity, water, employment and safety will do that.
Mr. Bush hasn't figured out how to improve Iraqis' lives any more than he's figured out how to bring stability in Iraq and bring U.S. troops home. The only thing Mr. Bush has figured out is that finding a solution will be someone else's problem. That's not supporting the troops; that's abandoning them.Check
2 comments:
Give it a chance, dear heart! Less funny is the disgusting ad in the New York Times by the Dems blog master depicting General Petraeus as a traitor.
President Bush's message Thursday night to American soldiers in Iraq was this: I got you in. Someone else will have to get you out.
As is standard for Mr. Bush on Iraq, he tried to leave the opposite impression. "Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq," he said, "we can begin seeing troops come home." He even claimed that this development "makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together."
But he isn't beginning the redeployment out of Iraq that most Americans favor. He's only bringing out the extra 30,000 "surge" troops. And that will take a year.
President Bush intends to leave 130,000 troops - the same number as before the surge - indefinitely. His new slogan, "return on success," is a rehash of "we'll stand down as Iraqis stand up." That could be never. Success in Iraq, he admitted, "will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency."
Referring to a report on the lack of Iraqi progress that was to be delivered to Congress the morning after his speech, President Bush said the Iraqi government "has not met its own legislative benchmarks, and in my meetings with Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must." But what's the penalty if they don't? None. U.S. forces will stay.
The speech continued the familiar lie that Iraq and Sept. 11 are connected. Failure in Iraq, Mr. Bush said, would bring chaos and create "dangers" that "as we saw on September the 11th, 2001 ... can reach our cities and kill our people." But Iraq already is in chaos. Even the much-touted military "success" in Anbar looked paler Thursday after the leading Sunni warlord who struck a deal with the U.S. was assassinated near his own home.
Amid all of Mr. Bush's overblown claims was one decided understatement: "For most Iraqis," he said, "the quality of life is far from where it should be." Yep. The lack of electricity, water, employment and safety will do that.
Mr. Bush hasn't figured out how to improve Iraqis' lives any more than he's figured out how to bring stability in Iraq and bring U.S. troops home. The only thing Mr. Bush has figured out is that finding a solution will be someone else's problem. That's not supporting the troops; that's abandoning them.Check
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