Playing Out the Clock: Day 1458

The White House is coming perilously close to admitting that Bush has
no expectation of achieving "victory" in Iraq. He's just playing out
the clock to make the problem someone else's. Petraeus's goal for an
assessment of the escalation to come in summer is now pushed back to
September, and the administration is now committed to downplaying
prosects for progress.

http://tinyurl.com/ytjpcm

In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that
the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the
government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they
are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the
increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.

That prospect would entail a dramatically longer commitment of
frontline troops, patrolling the most dangerous neighborhoods of
Baghdad, than the one envisioned in legislation that passed the House
and Senate this week. That vote, largely symbolic because Democrats do
not have the votes to override the promised presidential veto, set
deadlines that would lead to the withdrawal of combat troops by the
end of March 2008.

On Friday, during an appearance with Japan?s prime minister at
Camp David, President Bush said that he would invite congressional
leaders to the White House on Wednesday, immediately after his
expected veto message, to talk about a "way forward."

The only way forward is out. And the idea that Bush will come around
to that idea is becoming more obviously ridiculous. This man won't
give up on Alberto Gonzales, for chrissakes, what would make him
abandon this debacle? His veto, expected first thing next week, will
just reinforce his commitment to keeping the troops in Iraq until at
least January 20, 2009.

The fight over the Iraq supplemental bill has cemented in the public
mind the idea that Congress has set a deadline for withdrawal at March
31, 2008, a deadline they wholeheartedly support regardless of the
"symbolic" nature of the vote.

Following an onslaught of opinion polls on Iraq, the most recent
CBS/NYT poll has 64 percent supporting a timetable that gets us out in
'08, 57 percent want Congress to have the final say over troops
levels, and a record 71 percent disapproving of Bush's handling of
Iraq.

That public support should stiffen the resolve of Congressional
Democrats in the post-veto debate, particularly now that they've set
an expectation in the public that withdrawal in '08 is their line in
the sand.

....from the Kos
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Understanding the Iraq Surge
    ... With these words President Bush reminded the nation that..... ... word of a politician over that of a professional leader of troops is as ... In White House, Debate Is Rising on Iraq Pullback ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Understanding the Iraq Surge
    ... With these words President Bush reminded the nation that..... ... word of a politician over that of a professional leader of troops is as ... In White House, Debate Is Rising on Iraq Pullback ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Understanding the Iraq Surge
    ... With these words President Bush reminded the nation that..... ... a politician over that of a professional leader of troops is as much a fool as ... In White House, Debate Is Rising on Iraq Pullback ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Bush Refuses Our Troops War Funding Passed by Congress and Senate
    ... BUSH WANTS TO DENY AMERICAN TROOPS FUNDING AND FORCE THEM TO STAY ... Democrats Urge White House to Negotiate Iraq War Spending Bill ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Bush under fire as Iraq opens bitter feud
    ... The row over Iraq engulfed the White House and drove partisan debate to new fury ... author and arch Bush critic who directed the ferociously critical filmFahrenheit ... insisting that Democrats who supported the war in the ...
    (soc.culture.iraq)