Bush Offers New Catch-Phrase on Iraq Withdrawal Timetable

[JABBS]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1418872.htm

Broadcast: 20/07/2005

(snip)

GEORGE W BUSH: We had a good talk today about the way forward in Iraq. I assured him that our position is one that says, "As the Iraqis stand up, America stands down."

JIM MIDDLETON: But that does not mean withdrawal any time soon, even if the war in Iraq is growing more unpopular in the US as American casualties mount.

GEORGE W BUSH: They'll be there as long as necessary to complete the mission.

JIM MIDDLETON: Two years ago, Mr Bush declared the combat phase of the Iraq conflict over and Mr Howard said Australian troops would remain for months, rather than years. Today neither was being held to a timetable.

GEORGE W BUSH: I get asked about timetables all the time here. But the answer is: when the Iraqis are ready to do the fighting themselves.

JIM MIDDLETON: Timetables, said Mr Bush, merely emboldened the enemy. The Prime Minister echoed - and acknowledged - a line from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to try and put a time limit on our commitment in Iraq - I'm not. It will be governed by circumstances, rather than by the calendar.


***

This article first appeared on Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[Vickers]

1. That dipshit doesn't even know his multiplication tables...

...how can we expect him to know anything about timetables? Maybe he knows tide tables from fishing on his daddy's multimillion dollar boats off the Maine coast.

You know, like a cowboy. :eyes: