AP: Bush hopes to buy time for Iraq strategy (What Iraq strategy?!)

[BurtWorm]

The strategy of turning the problem of Iraq over to the next several administrations? That one already seems to be working. :grr:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq


By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 6 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.

As part of the public relations flurry, Vice President Dick Cheney planned to travel to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan and MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. Iraq also was chosen as the topic for Bush's weekly Saturday radio address, and administration officials were being offered to television networks for Sunday news show appearances.

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