Posted on 07/09/2007 7:46:49 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
ABC News has been told the White House is in "panic mode" over the recent defections of Republican senators on the president's stay-the-course policy in Iraq.
Senior Bush administration officials are deep in discussion about how to find a compromise that will "appease Democrats and keep wobbly Republicans onboard," a senior White House official told ABC News.
[snip]"We're not retreating or announcing troop withdrawal," the official said, but, "we need to buy more time for Petraeus." The White House has not reached any kind of consensus about what to do, despite the high-level discussions.
The White House suggests a much-anticipated report on the progress of the president's policy in Iraq will likely be released Thursday, and that is the day Bush will likely comment on it........."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The hard-headed stance on immigration was a Chernobyl test run, I am afraid.
Bomb Iran. That’ll give them something else to talk about.
Screw the MSM and the limp risted RINOS.
Many friends of mine who have supported Bush all along are going wobbly. They are tired of our soldiers dying while the Iraqis will not step up. I am also having serious reservations.
we have this crap and hype before in the media, among democrats, and among knee jerk people on our side that President Bush is going to cave on Iraq but he never did and he will never will.
Those democrats, their media, and knee jerk conservatives are so stupid and delusional that they forgot what happened less than 2 months ago when the President crushed the democrats in the war funding bill showdown and forced them to withdraw the surrenders date from the bill. If those people have such a short memory then they are genetically stupid.
Could be. Dubya has lost support over that.
Well, all I can say is if these slime bag politicians leave our troops with their asses hanging out over this bullshit, there is going to be hell to pay. That’s where my concern lies.
Then the administration needs to put to use its communications resources and saturate the available mass media.
Maybe if Republicans would start acting like conservatives, we wouldn’t have to worry about this.
I hope that is the case. MSM would have a lot of egg on their faces!
Yawn... - I am now positive that the entire White House staff are all running around in “panic mode” - whatever that is - now that the truthsayers at ABC have told me what to think.
Get a life people.
Is this an old article? I swear I have read it about 15,740,943 times, lol!
The statement above is half true and half false.
Yes, our military is still dying, but making great progress over the past couple of months.
The statement that Iraqis are not stepping up is pure media fabrication. Iraqi police and military are dying at rates that are many times higher than our military. They are stepping up and they are getting killed for it. Have to give them credit.
Of course, the MSM will not acknowledge this.
Now, if we are talking Iraqi politicians, the statement may have some merit.
From 1993 to 1998, Raddatz covered the Pentagon for National Public Radio.
her husband Tom Gjelten, is a correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) news. Gjelten has worked for NPR since 1982, when he joined the orgainization as a labor and education reporter. More recently he has covered diplomatic and national security issues, based out of NPR’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Well w, that’s what you get for trying to push so many liberal policies down your base’s throats. Nobody watching your back now.
I question whether that is true. It is based on media polls, and I do not believe any polls.
Many friends of mine who have supported Bush all along are going wobbly. They are tired of our soldiers dying while the Iraqis will not step up. I am also having serious reservations.
________________
Ditto here. We should have gone it, got it done and got out. Instead we’ve been fighting a politically correct war from the onset (with the “peaceful religion”).
In addition to her work for ABC News, Raddatz has written for “The New Republic” and is a frequent guest on PBS’s “Washington Week.”
This so called Republican Revolt is made to sound like a major item. But so far, it is Hagle and the lady from (Oregon)?. I haven’t heard any other names mentioned or seen clips of others speaking up. So exactly where is this movement?
The MSM would like to lead people into believing there is a major revolt against Bush by Republicans on the war.
Give us some freaking names!!
I really have no will to support the administration after the immigration mess. They actively sought to destroy the country with legislation and still refuse to enforce the law. It's led me to really question anything else Bush has done. If he could be so wrong on one issue of national security and sovereignty, I can't help but question his motives in other areas.
Or maybe it's consistent, 'fight them over there, so we can have open borders and NAU here'.
How stupid are many people to forget that we have seen exactly the same BS less than 2 months ago. The traitors and their media deluded themselves into believing that they are going to force the President to accept surrender date in the war funding bills, the knee jerks on our side believed that they are going to do it, they were all crushed by the leadership of our President and the traitors were forced to withdraw their surrender dates from the war funding bill.
I didn’t know!
How could we?
Did you know that 47 countries’ have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?
Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation,
263 new schools are now under construction
and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq ?
Did you know that Iraq ‘s higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities,
46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers,
all currently operating?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005
for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational?
They have 5 - 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq ‘s Air Force consists of three operational squadrons,
which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft
(under Iraqi operational control)
which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000
fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq
that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?
They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations,
22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5
have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq
and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations,
180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN’T KNOW!
WHY DIDN’T WE KNOW?
OUR MEDIA WOULDN’T TELL US!
Instead of reflecting our love for our country,
we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib
and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.
Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:
It is intended to undermine the world’s perception of the United States
thus minimizing consequent support,
and it is intended to discourage American citizens.
—— Above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense web site..
.......Pass it on! Give it a Wide Dissemination!
Yep. MSM, Pelosi & Reid are p*ssing their knickers.
Yep, and they are licking their chops about what they believe the interim report to be released on thursday will say.
Yet another unnamed official.
I’m disgusted by any senator or representative who chooses to retreat from his responsibility to the military, to this nation and to the goal of victory on the Iraq battlefield and ultimately in the war against terrorists.
Novel idea! Investigate the investigators! hmmmmmm
A senate hearing on senate investigations? LOL
How about a peoples court? Sounds better to me.
Martha Raddatz reporting has always been against this Administration. What do you expect?
Next time we should Declare War and hang these leakers.
Tell them actually to look at what is happening. For two years we thought we could set up a goverbnment and from that security would flow. That didn’t happen. The new strategy is saying: first security then government. The Iraqis are no fools. They look at Washington and see bug-out fever gripping Republican politcians. The more thay see of this, the LESS they will do. Why commit to a government that is bound to fail?
Sounds to me ABC is in panic mode. There’s no bad news to report, so they have to invent it. (Yawn)
Rewarding the Party faithful with his immigration scheme was not his smartest move at a time when he needs support.
ABC News is spewing out their version of dezinformatsia.
http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
A Greek Tragedy in the Making
Vietnam has been evoked so many times for Iraq that most snore when they hear it.
But the real parallels are the images of an orphaned war (Vietnam circa 1972-5) when the public had given up, the politicians had begun getting most troops out, and after Watergate, begun to cut off funds in a series of Congressional actions.
Few cared then to hear that the South Vietnamese government, corrupt as it was, was far superior to the alternative, or was viable in a way that late 1950s South Korea had become (compare the modern state there to the present alternative to the north), or that Saigon could evolve in a way Hanoi could not.
Much less did anyone want to hear of possible consequences of defeat and flight. Indeed, talk of camps, executions, and refugees were written off as right-wing scare stories. The last five years of Vietnam before the fall were largely the work of a small dedicated group of military people and diplomats who finally figured out counter-insurgency, had trained and supplied the South Vietnamese effectively, and very slowly drew down while providing air and material support—until the cutoffs.
Something similar is happening in Iraq. After a zillion evocations of “fiasco”, “mess”, and “disaster” any good news is either ignored or written off as Pentagon fantasies, all lost in the tragic weekly American body counts. “Civil War” is the party line. We may have “factionalism” in Gaza or “unrest” in Lebanon, but only in Iraq is there a full-fledged “civil war.”
In any case, by late summer, there will be enough Republican defections—Lugar, Domenici, Alexander, etc.—to shut down funding for the war. The Republicans may not vote for direct cut-offs, but there will be ways to get out of the way of the Democratic juggernaut that will ensure a veto-proof and filibuster-proof majority. Such is the natural way of democracies and no one can object to its expression of the undeniable anti-war sentiment of the present public. Whether this stampede will preempt Gen. Petraeus’s reports to Congress in September is the only suspense.
While few would believe there is any good news from Iraq, in fact, there is. Finally, we are mastering counter-insurgency, partly due to trial-and-error, partly due to the sheer exhaustion of the Iraqis who went through the embraces of Arab nationalism, ex-Baathism, and al-Qaedism that at various times fueled the insurgency. On occasion now, Sunni tribesmen for the first time are helping Americans and want a cessation of random violence. Kurdistan is by all accounts a success. The south will be infiltrated by Iran, given its Shiite population and proximity, but Iran itself is tottering and may be as destabilized by Iraq as it can destabilize Iraq.
In short, Gen. Petreus has gone right to the cancer in the Sunni Triangle, and for the first time we are starting to see real results. Another thought: just as the malignancy in Sunni Iraq is right where the Americans are now fighting, and Iraq itself—in addtion to being the Mesopotamian ancient caliphate and oil-shipping nexus of the Gulf—was the great malignancy of the Middle East under Saddam and the Baathists, the stakes are very high for the entire region.
Already Gulf States are lining up against Iran. The Arab presses are far more hostile to Hamas, Syria, and Ahmadinejad than are the Western media. And, again for the first time, there is a grudging Arab desire expressed to see Iraqi constitutional government succeed.
And now the Vietnam parallel again. Are we going to read books in the next decade with titles like “Triumph Forsaken” and “Victory Lost”, whose themes will be that the US had almost done the impossible by going into the worst place in the Middle East and, all at once, addressing Saddam’s reign of terror, Islamic fundamentalism, ex-Baathism, religious sectarianism, Iranian and Syrian infiltration, and seeing something far better emerge—and then at the climax quit in recrimination and despair over the terrible loss in blood and treasure?
Gen. Petraeus rightly talks of two clocks—Baghdad and DC time—for Iraq. But suddenly the DC hands just skipped a few hours, and we are five minutes to midnight. His dilemma: how to convey to the troops that their strategy and efforts are at last working, despite the increased panic at home, and to the Iraqis: keep joining us despite the fact we all may be leaving much more quickly than we have assured you.
If this “official” is for real then the President needs to find out who it is and put them on trial for treason just for talking to the media about military deliberations. My guess is that it’s actually someone out of the State Dept.
The President spent what little political capital he had left fighting his own party on an unpopular immigration plan and lost. His numbers are as low as ever and he’s got no capital left to keep the war alive.
This President lost the war in Iraq because he never put it politically first. He and Rove chose the argue the most riskiest (politically) reasons to go to war in Iraq, he allowed Democrats to maneuver into position flexible enough to wiggle out any votes for or against the war regardless of it’s outcome, he had no response when his honesty on the subject was being destroyed, he chose positions that were counter to his parties wishes, compromised on domestic issues when he should have stood firm, stood firm on issues he should have compromised on, and assumed loyalty from his party regardless of his actions.
This war was never protected politically by the President and Rove like it should have been and now we are all going to pay the price in the War on Terror. Rove was great to have on Election Day but never planned the long term viabilty of important issues like he should have and has a advised the President on these issues horribly. Anyone still think Rove is a genius? I think not.
January 22 2007 The Senate: The Republican Revolt How close is Bush to losing his own party?
January 18 2007 Bush Seeks To Tamp Down GOP Revolt
January 19 2007 Behind the Republican Revolt
There are legitimate questions that need to be asked. The GOP Senators are hearing it from their constituents just like they heard from those who opposed the amnesty bill.
No one supports an immediate withdrawal but you have to concede we've reached a crossroads here.
She is a lib, no doubt, but she strikes me as one who generally tries to overcome her bias and be evenhanded.
jveritas speaks the truth.
The media is spinning about their own demise.
We have to crush the terrorists in Iraq and that will only happen by continuing the war until we achieve this goal
Many hawks I know, including myself, are disgusted with the Iraqi government. Bush is failing as a political leader. He is not making the case for staying the course. Why are the best of America sacrificing their live, bread, and time for middle-eastern misanthropes?
Bush's message has been mixed. Apparently we are fighting a war against a religion of peace. Bush aint no Lincoln.
Ironically, that's the very thing that's hurting the war effort. How can people support the war when Bush refuses to highlight the successes made?
Take a minute and read your post, sounds like something out of DU
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