Posted on 10/23/2006 3:14:21 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Under election-year pressure to change course in Iraq, the Bush administration said Monday there are no plans for dramatic shifts in policy or for ultimatums to Baghdad to force progress.
Just two weeks before the Nov. 7 elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, the White House tried to calm political anxieties about deteriorating security in Iraq. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling on President Bush to change his war plan.
"We're on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an Associated Press interview. U.S. and Iraqi officials should be held accountable for the lack of progress, said Graham, a Republican who is a frequent critic of the administration's policies.
Asked who in particular should be held accountable _ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps, or the generals leading the war _ Graham said: "All of them. It's their job to come up with a game plan" to end the violence
Rumsfeld, in remarks at the Pentagon, said U.S. government and military officials were working with Iraq to set broad time frames for when Iraqis can take over 16 provinces that are still under the control of U.S. troops. He said officials were not talking about penalizing the Iraqis if they don't hit certain benchmarks.
The Iraqis have taken control of two southern provinces but have been slow to take the lead in others, particularly those around Baghdad and in the volatile regions north and west of the capital city. Rumsfeld said specific target dates probably will not be set. Instead, he said there might be a broader time frame _ such as a one- to three-month window _ for the Iraqis to take control of certain provinces.
Rumsfeld visited the White House early Monday with Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rumsfeld said the United States was looking at when the Iraqis would move close to setting up a reconciliation process to help quell worsening sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
Frustration with the war is eroding support in Republican as well as Democratic camps.
Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said two Republicans have told him they will demand a new policy in Iraq after the election. Biden declined to name the GOP lawmakers. He said Republicans have been told not to make waves before the election because it could cost the party seats. Yet some prominent GOP lawmakers have expressed doubts about Bush's policy.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said the United States was continually adjusting its strategy in Iraq.
"In that sense there are new things going on. But are there dramatic shifts in policy? The answer is no," Snow said.
"There is still a very large to-do list before Iraq is in a position to sustain, govern and defend itself," he said.
"Are we issuing ultimatums? No."
He acknowledged, however, that Bush no longer is saying that the United States will "stay the course" in Iraq.
"He stopped using it," Snow said of that phrase, adding that it left the impression that the administration was not adjusting its strategy to realities in Baghdad.
Showing progress in Iraq is critical with the approaching elections, which are widely viewed as a referendum on public support of the war. In Baghdad on Tuesday, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander there, are scheduled to hold a rare joint news conference.
Facing growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure to stem the carnage, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said international forces must not abandon Iraq while the situation there remains volatile.
"I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run," he told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. He said Iraqis and the international community need to be realistic, "but not defeatist."
"We need to understand that there is a need of utmost urgency to deal with many of the problems of Iraq but we must not give in to panic," he said.
I'm agreeing with him right now,
I too agree, anyone that thinks things over there are under control need help. I feel I am loyal to the President to a fault, but things there are bad and people here need to admit it.
Once again, little Flimsey Tinkerbelle pops up to throw sand in the gears. What a creep!
And we thought Chuckie Schumer is the leading media hound?
Even if he is correct, it would seem to me to be far wiser to work behind the scenes than to say such things in public, so that our enemies believe that if they can just keep killing our guys we will eventually give up because we don't have the will to go on.
susie
There was a time I thought highly of this guy. Then he went downhill.I sure hope a conservative runs against him next time he is up for re-election because he is a complete waste of space in DC.
You're a POS Lindsey, but I guess you already know that!
Republicans should be demanding Ted Kennedy's resignation from the Senate for selling out this country to the Soviet Union. But republicans can't smell an issue if it is put under their noses. Keep criticizing our president and for the traitor left wing it's free pass all the way.
Your showing your ignorance if you answer to the affirmative.
The RNC will interfere if a primary challenge is mounted, abusing the funds they are given by their donors again.
But I do want one to happen and this time succeed.
Linds is the perfect example of why I despise the party right now. And if he had any courage whatsoever he'd run as a "moderate" Democrat for that is what he is in his heart. He just so happens to be unelectable as a Democrat in South Carolina. So why I should care what a political coward has to say about war, well, I have to confess I don't really know. If you haven't the guts to stand for the party you really belong in because you might not be elected, you certainly don't have a right to be listened to about life and death matters in war. Sue, you have the right to speak, but I have the right not give a damn wha a political coward thinks.
"Is Lindsey married to a woman"
Hint: activate gaydar at this time.
Clinton was a heterosexual...
Unrequited love?
Semper Fi
Uh oh -- he's on the Armed Services Committee.
US casualties [dead and wounded] declined from 2004 to 2005 and declined again in 2006.
I think the American people would listen.
Maybe he is on that list of gay republicans that was supposed to be dumped on us before the elections and is a victim of blackmail. So he must say these things? Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm
You don't have to be a Bushbot to understand that saying things like this in a time of war causes our enemies to believe that they can win if they can just hang on long enough for the tide to turn against the administration. Of course, this may be too complicated for some to understand. BTW, I'm far from a Bushbot.
susie
Let me remind everyone once again: Everyone, with the exception of a few cowards, signed on to this war, now FINISH THE JOB! Hell, you're not fighting this war anyway but some mighty brave men and women certainly are putting their lives on the line.
Is that so hard to grasp? I plan on making contact personally with some of these RINOs and from a combat infantryman Dad's point of view, tell them exactly what I think of them, face to face, no wiggle room, no dancing around the subject. It will give me great pleasure.
Thanks asswhole.(Graham) Guess you will be a democrat after the election.
The fact is, it was a deadly business right up to the end.
Senator Graham is making statements on the public record that, if necessary, he can refer back to in the 08 vice presidential debate as an example of his "independence". Many are running scared of the "rubber stamp" label that Casey is using on Santorum.
It's really a cynical and calculated political move, and I hope it backfires on him.
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