Iraqi quagmire threatens to sink Bush

[Sticky]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush is twice mired: in the quagmire of an Iraqi occupation gone wrong, and in the sinkhole of domestic politics, where the failures in Baghdad threaten to drown his chances for re-election in November.

In order to truly persuade critical swing voters, Mr. Bush requires a very different message than he does when trying to persuade the rest of the world to help create a stable Iraq. So when he recast his objectives for Iraq in last night's televised speech, it was supposed to satisfy two audiences.

snip

"One of the dirty little secrets about June 30 is that the U.S. still won't allow Iraqis to control their own destiny," said James Steinberg, director of foreign-policy studies at Washington's Brookings Institution, which invited a panel of experts yesterday to discuss the post-transfer Iraq. U.S. forces would retain wide-ranging powers under the new resolution -- which may help to sell the deal at home, but may make it even harder to push through the Security Council.


"There has been a complete collapse of trust in the United States," said Shibley Telhami, who is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland. "The moral argument was the last thread," he said, and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal "severed it."

More here (and vote in the poll next to the article)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPSt...

[dweller]

1. what are the poll results?

everytime i vote or try to view results, it shuts down my browser...

...must not like my vote.
dp

[mark414]

2. i wonder how many of those no's already didn't like him

Has your opinion of U.S. President George W. Bush changed in the last year because of his handling of the Iraq situation?

Yes, for the better
1048 votes (9 %)

Yes, for the worse
7602 votes (69 %)

No
2420 votes (22 %)


Total Votes: 11070

[Sticky]

3. Speaking for myself

I didn't have an opinion either way of George Bush until his lies started about Iraq. It struck me as curious that george bush would make statements using Iraq, al-Qeada and terrorism as if they were all one in the same. Most people knew they weren't. I started listening carefully to him after that and became outraged over his increasingly bold (and unchallenged) lies ...

My negative opinion of george bush kicked in long before the war in Iraq - the war only solidified it.