Bush hopes to buy time for Iraq strategy

[rodeodance]

Source: ap



Bush hopes to buy time for Iraq strategy

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - By promising that the extra combat troops sent to Iraq will come home next year if conditions allow, President Bush hopes to buy enough patience from politicians and the public for success to bloom in that fractured, violent country.

The president's pitch for more time — which has aggravated Democrats as well as many rank-and-file Republicans — was scheduled for a televised address at 9 p.m. EDT Thursday. Aides chose the Oval Office, the White House's most formal, presidential setting, for the 18-minute speech.

Not willing to wait, Senate Democrats were already discussing legislation to limit the mission of U.S. forces in Iraq. By limiting troops to training Iraq's military and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists while not setting a deadline to end the war, Democrats hoped to attract enough Republicans to bring such a proposal to a vote.

The day after his televised address, Bush was expected to reinforce the message with remarks from a Marine base in Quantico, Va., just outside Washington, and with the White House's release of an Iraq status report required by Congress.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_i... ;_ylt=ApGCrWfizJ9QzKIlfUsLcG.s0NUE

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'buying' time------more plastic to go!!

[rodeodance]

1. the Shiite-led government feels little pressure to accelerate work toward true political reconciliat

......The intense debate in Washington wasn't mirrored with similar intensity in Baghdad. There, the news that drastic troop reductions don't seem in the offing has meant the Shiite-led government feels little pressure to accelerate work toward true political reconciliation.

The president's latest approach matches Petraeus' recommendations for the force posture. What Bush is endorsing, however, represents only a slight hastening of the already scheduled end of the so-called surge.

Planned troop rotations call for the first of the additional troops sent this year to come back starting next spring, with all of them home by the end of next summer. That could change only if Bush and his team extend tour lengths or shorten home leave for replacements.

The plan Petraeus announced this week would instead have the first of the additional troops returning home this month, a 2,000-member Marine unit, followed by the mid-December departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers. The other four combat brigades would leave by July 2008 under an unspecified timetable. Also, Petraeus was not precise about whether all of the 8,000 support troops sent with those extra combat forces would be withdrawn by July.

[clixtox]

2. Who's selling?

I sure hope that it won't be the Democrats in the Congress... Again!

[ClintonTyree]

3. "Playing" for a little more time

another 6 months or so, then he'll "play" for another 6 months after that and ...VOILA! He's passed HIS fucking war on to the next President and he's scott free to "replenish the old coffers" and rid his conscience (if indeed one exists) of the entire sordid, deadly mess.

All the while American kids keep dying just so he doesn't have to withdraw our troops and look "weak". News flash for ya' Georgie: you're the weakest minded son of a bitch to ever hold the office of President. You're an abject failure and nothing, NOTHING you do, short of bringing the troops home NOW, will ever change that.

[Spinzonner]

4. Wishful non-thinking is not a Strategy

[deacon]

5. WHAT strategy??? What he wants doesn't fall under a strategy category!

Stunning and completely baffling..."if conditions allow"..... c'mon...

[scarface2004]

6. 50 billion should buy a couple months..

i guess.

[jody]

7. Bush strategy, I will save Iraq's citizens even if I have to kill every one of them. n/t

[damntexdem]

8. Buy time FOR his strategy? No!

Buying time IS his strategy.