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 believe it has existed in every war going back to the Revolution. It is certainly not helpful, but I think we will survive.
Seems to me you're the one fixated on Bush, just as Lindsey is fixated on Rummy because Rummy makes his friends' lives in JAG and Defense deseredly hell.
If you bothered to read one comment in this thread you'd find most of the critisism centers on Lind's statement about the war NOT Bush. It may come as a shock to you but most of us don't hold Lind's ingratiating MSM statements about the war to be tolerable because we don't hold them to be truth. Bush isn't a factor here in most of our opinions, except for you apparently.
Graham is not helping matters with these comments three weeks before the election. He is also doing the bidding of the media.
Can't we reinstitute the old adage: "If you can't say anything nice, just don't say anything at all" That would shut up SO MANY people in Washington DC!
You nailed it!
He's not married.
*crickets*
I wish I had your confidence. Do you have anything online I can go read to support that this has gone on (at this level, I don't mean that no one ever played politics during a time of war)? I would like to think that you're right and it's not a big deal. But it feels like a real big deal. Especially after growing up a military brat during the Vietnam war and watching what role the media and politics played in that loss.
susie
Can't we reinstitute the old adage: "If you can't say anything nice, just don't say anything at all" That would shut up SO MANY people in Washington DC!
Not really, the entire town would be going around saying stuff like, "Hey, nice tie!" and "Really like your shoes!"
I'll say the person on the right.
Nice try TROLL! Pfft...
Won't do them any good in my case. I voted this AM as soon as early voting began. Straight R except for Governor Hairdo.
Wow, lidsey graham is a republican? I thought he was a RINO.
I know exactly what you mean. But, remember...
This is not an isolated slice of time in Iraq.
This is about two weeks to a major United States mid-term election. The terrorists in Iraq may be inhuman jerkoff a$$holes, but most are assuredly not dumb.
They KNOW their only chance is to turn the American public against the war and influence politics in this country.
Your negative emotions are what they want to elicit. They WANT the same effect on US elections they had in Spain and with the help of the Liberals and MSM in this country, there is a chance they well succeed.
We are at one point in a battle in a long war. We are going to have worse weeks at some point ahead. Keep a steady strain! As a country, we need to do that as well.
I'll look for something credible and send it to you if I can find any. I just know from reading and studying history that this kind of stuff is part of American culture. During the Revolution a large segment, possibly even a majority, of colonists were loyal to England. In the Civil War Lincoln was maligned in cartoons and editorials. His approval rating was probably in the 20s or 30s in the part of the nation that didn't seceed. Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman also took huge amounts of criticism and were hated by large sections of the population.
Troll? I've been here 3 years longer than you have.
You're probably right. Has the press also always been rooting for the other side? Maybe things aren't as bad as I think they are.
susie
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