WP, Froomkin: Is Bush getting ready to declare Iraq victory, and get out?

[DeepModem Mom]

Change Of Course?
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 12, 2006

Could President Bush be getting ready to declare victory in Iraq and get out?

Bush aides have been sending an odd combination of signals these last several days from the White House and Camp David. On the one hand, they're officially tamping down expectations of a troop withdrawal announcement. But on the other hand, there are signs of an unusual amount of commotion within Bush's inner circle....

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Sure, Bush has long said that establishing a timetable for troop withdrawal would only help the enemy. But when pragmatism demands it, he is more than adept at changing his mind about things, citing altered circumstances, and all the while insisting that he is being consistent. (See, for instance, his reverse-course on talking with Iran two weeks ago.)...

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Here's a real tea-leaf: Bush aides typically wave off such reports, but today's "Morning Update" e-mail from the press office actually calls attention to a Washington Times story by Eric Pfeiffer about troop-withdrawal talk from outside the White House....

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Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "White House officials have said announcements of force reductions are not expected. Yet the top U.S. commander in Baghdad predicted on the eve of the meeting that coalition troops will gradually move out of the country in the coming months....Bush has said the new government marks a new chapter in the U.S. relationship with Iraq. With Republicans worried about losing control of Congress in November's midterm elections and most Americans saying they would like some troops to come home, Bush is under pressure. Only a third of respondents to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in early June supported Bush's handling of the situation -- an all-time low."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[AndyA]

1. This would be a slick move on Bush's part.

Pull the troops out and declare victory just before the November elections. Have the media partners declare a blackout on anything negative from Iraq, show human interest stories about all the happy Iraqi people, etc.

Meanwhile...over in Iran...trouble is brewing. Intelligence indicates WMDs exist. Must fight them over there so we don't have to over here.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[peacebird]

2. bing-bing-bimg - we have a winner!!!

that's the way I see it too....

[rusty charly]

3. "signs of an unusual amount of commotion within Bush's inner circle"

when did covering the WH become like reading the Kremlin was in the 70s?

[MissWaverly]

5. yes, maybe we should start studying the group photos

to figure out what's going on.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Shades of "1984"

Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
<snip>
The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past,"' ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it; in Newspeak, "doublethink."

[Warren Stupidity]

6. No.

Well he might declare victory but they will not be pulling out. There will undoubtedly be some sham of a troop reduction - as we have had on a regular basis - but no real difference.

Consider that last week the theofascist leadership in the congressional conference committee deleted the 'no permanent bases' clause in the Iraq funding bill. They are not going anywhere. Not now, not ever, until we americans toss their sorry asses out of office.