WASHINGTON NEWS
Defiant Bush Holds Firm On Surge
As the White House delivered what it termed a "mixed" progress report to Congress on the Iraq war, President Bush held a press conference to make his case for continuing the surge strategy until September. Media reports portray him as holding his ground, and note Bush and members of his Administration sought to stress that the report contained only interim findings. In what is a common refrain, ABC World News said the Bush team was attempting to "buy time," though on Capitol Hill many Democrats "made clear they have no intention of waiting." USA Today also reports the President "is seeking more time for the Iraq security strategy" to succeed.
Most analysts believe the President gained little ground yesterday. NBC Nightly News said Bush's "resolve has failed to quell a Republican rebellion and bipartisan calls to impose a withdrawal timeline." The Wall Street Journal observes that Thursday's report "seemed certain to complicate White House efforts to maintain congressional support for its handling of Iraq." The Christian Science Monitor also says that "an assessment that basically calls for more patience on Iraq may end up having a limited impact in part because it emphasizes military achievements at a point in the Iraq effort when everyone from military commanders to analysts agree that political progress is now the crucial determining factor."
The Washington Post describes Bush as "a weakened president [who] is desperately playing for time while a Democratic opposition mounts its case against him and Republican lawmakers agonize over how long to stick with him." The New York Times says Bush's Iraq strategy "now boils down to this: He is trying to buy time for a surge that is living on borrowed time," and "even some of" his "aides acknowledge that the" surge "the president so ardently defended...was already in its final phases. From the White House to the Pentagon to the military headquarters in Iraq, the focus of behind-the-scenes planning is already on what follows."
The San Francisco Chronicle says that given his low poll numbers, Bush "has little to lose politically in using the last 18 months of his presidency to try to prove critics of his war policy wrong." But "the rest of his Republican Party...is looking at something entirely different: elections for the House, Senate and the presidency that, absent a miraculous turnaround in Iraq or a suicidal stumble by Democrats, are headed for a debacle."
---I dunno what this troop surge will do, do you? Im sure it will get more of our boys killed, thats for sure. I just think that this new Iraqi Govt. is a like a big baby and wont learn to walk on its own until we leave. They bitch and moan that were are there, yet as soon as something diplomatic comes up they run to us for advice. I say we get out of the middle east all together, let them all kill one another. ---
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