Bush: Iraq Study Group Agrees With Me

President Praises Report Recommendations That Support Administration, Ignores Criticisms

(CBS/AP)  President Bush spoke Saturday about parts of the Iraq Study Group report that mirror his policies — but he ignored the sections that criticize his administration's handling of the war.

In his weekly radio broadcast, Bush said the bipartisan group's report presented a straightforward picture of the "grave situation we face in Iraq." He said he was pleased the panel supported his goal of an Iraq that can govern, sustain and defend itself, even though that will take time. And he said he was glad the bipartisan panel did not suggest a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"The group declared that such a withdrawal would `almost certainly produce greater sectarian violence' and lead to `a significant power vacuum, greater human suffering, regional destabilization and a threat to the global economy,"' Bush said, quoting the report, which was issued Thursday.

"The report went on to say, `If we leave and Iraq descends into chaos, the long-range consequences could eventually require the United States to return,"' Bush noted.

The report, however, also said the situation in Iraq was "grave and deteriorating."

Bush is expected to settle on a new course for Iraq and present it to the nation in a speech before Christmas. He said he will consider the panel's 79 recommendations.

The president goes to the State Department for talks Monday, then meets in the Oval Office with independent experts on Iraq. On Tuesday, the president confers in a video conference with senior military commanders and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq. On Wednesday, he meets with senior defense officials at the Pentagon.

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Listen to President Bush's radio address

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Democrats say the report vindicates their call for a change of course by the administration, but it's unclear how dramatic the changes the president is contemplating would be.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the Iraq Study Group's report necessitates an immediate new direction in Iraq.

"Their report confirms what most of us have known for some time — President Bush's policy of stay the course is not working," Reyes said. "We need a new approach."

He said the Iraq Study Group recommends something that House and Senate Democrats have been advocating for months: To begin redeploying U.S. troops, the mission of the U.S. military must switch from combat to training and support.

"We must also demand more results from the Iraqi government, holding them accountable for their actions," Reyes said. "And we must launch a new diplomatic offensive to engage Iraq's neighbors and the international community in the process of stabilizing Iraq and that region. President Bush has not done this, but he must because our nation's security and the well-being of our 150,000 troops there depend on it."

Incoming Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was among congressional leaders who met with Bush at the White House on Friday, said the president indicated he was open to changing tactics.

"I think we all understand tactics need to be changed, but the Iraq Study Group went further than tactics," Durbin said. "The Iraq Study Group talked about the new direction in Iraq in terms of starting to bring American troops home, redeploying them to safer places, holding Iraq to new standards of responsibility and opening up a new line of diplomacy."

Durbin said Bush didn't endorse the Iraq Study Group at the meeting and said the president's statements left him questioning whether Bush will support the panel's conclusions.

[jackntx]

Firststate,

And so 9/11 was a delusion??

[jackntx]

Clestes,

You obviously need to READ the report.

[jackntx]

RandallDS,

Gee, you must be President Bush himself, to be able to know so intimately his very thoughts and inner machinations of his mind and being.

Where did you get your psychoanalytic training? And did they teach you that making diagnoses without ever meeting someone is proper???

Or, perhaps you are just projecting . . .

[tejasdemo]

RandallDS,

You are 100% correct.

[clestes-2009]

Is this not just howlingly hysterical?? Somehow, Dubya has managed to twist and highlight the FEW WORDS that the ISG said and found a way to make the case that their plans AGREE with his. Unbelievable, totally unbelievable. Everytime I think I have seen him off the wall, he surprises me by going even further off the wall!!

The ISG says plainly that Bushie's plans are not working and will cause the Iraq conflict to descend into chaos so bad it could overflow to other countries around Iraq. Now how the hell does he manage to get "they agree with me" out of that??

Dubya, you are certifiable. Once your presidency if over, the guys in white jackets will come to take you away, where you can play war games on a computer and not in real life where people die for your mistakes.

[randalds]

I believe tru_america1 is correct, Bush is obviously mentally ill. he has a huge inferiority complex from a whole life of (rightly) being labeled as the family joke and screw up. he is also a sociopath as he honestly doesn't grasp that real human beings, on both sides of the war, are dying. He honestly doesn't understand that this is not a game and the people are not going to all stand back up when it's over. Their arms and legs and, in many cases, brain functions are gone forever. He is missing the compassion that makes people human. He does not care, because he is unable to. That fact makes him far too sick to be the president of anything, let alone this country.

[bushrocks1]

Would I send my son to this war? You might ask would I send him to World War II? Or Vietnam? Maybe you would distinguish those conflicts and whether you would send your son to fight in them. But that question is misdirected in a very important way: I can't command my son to go to war. He has to make that choice. So the better question would be: would I volunteer to fight in Iraq, WW II, Vietnam? Would I volunteer to fight in any war? Respond if drafted? I don%u2019t know. I'm not equivocating, only addressing that it is a hypothetical. To a hypothetical, I can answer, sure I'd fight. But I have nightmares of battle (from my past life as a Jacobite). So how do I feel toward those who do volunteer? Impressed and maturely knowing that many things go into their decision. But I do strongly believe that a country that can't find those men is doomed. The fact that we can find them is one reason why I say there is no failure in Iraq. Objectively, I also believe it for other reasons. An attempt to establish democracy in the Middle East is a bold, brilliant, noble effort, facing a high chance of failure. That's why I greatly respect and admire those who have made the attempt--the Bush administration. They have been resolute, something I have not seen in my lifetime. They may not succeed, for reasons outside their control or fault: traitors on the home front. Now those traitors have occupied the high ground. Yet... we're still in Iraq; the President hasn%u2019t been impeached. Why?...I'm waiting.

[firststate]

bush's frocks, a real dressing down, can we just call him Jake from his past life?

[firststate]

His delusional state would be almost funny, but real human beings, many of them our military who derserve better, are dying because of his delusions. Someone needs to explain that these are real people, really dying, not pretend. It's not like when his GI Joe doll beats his Ken doll up and everything's fine the next day.

His fantasy work on changes for the real war won't fly the way it did with his imaginative intelligence selection for the buildup to his debacle, Bill O'Really, the Washington Times and the daily reich notwithstanding.

[frankly6]

Below is a quote from a story on the AP site. It shows what some of our troops think of Duhbya's war...

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gann, the wounded man's squad leader, stared blankly at a wall for a moment, then spoke.

"They won tonight," he said. "But we've got to protect the guys next to us. We're dying for nothing and that's all we've got."

The wounded man mentioned died a few minutes later.




Posted by gramto11 at 07:27 AM : Dec 10, 2006

[frankly6]

Below is a quote from a story on the AP site. It shows what some of our troops think of Duhbya's war...

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gann, the wounded man's squad leader, stared blankly at a wall for a moment, then spoke.

"They won tonight," he said. "But we've got to protect the guys next to us. We're dying for nothing and that's all we've got."

The wounded man mentioned died a few minutes later.
Posted by gramto11 at 07:27 AM : Dec 10, 2006

[frankly6]

"Let's impeach the president for lying

And leading our country into war

Abusing all the power that we gave him

And shipping all our money out the door"

-Mr. Neil Young
Posted by macusweil at 02:41 PM : Dec 10, 2006

[autummin]

-In response to some comments made by bmsbms29:

"But without wars, without death the U.S. would not be a democracy today."

-We are a democracy? This is a nation ruled by rich old white dudes. republican or democrat, it doesn't matter. Same poop, different party. When every man and woman have a true voice in the direction of lawmaking and the like, THEN this will be a democracy.

"I am thankful that President Bush is our president - because he is concerned for our country & does not back down from his beliefs just to get people to like him."

-Bush is not concerned for this country. He is concerned for the pocketbooks of his corporate cronies. That is all.

"I am proud to be an American because I know that I am free."

-We are free to do as they tell us. I'll probably have the CIA storming down my door for what I just posted. As soon as someone speaks out in disagreement of the war, of the president, of foreign and/or domestic policy, he or she is immediately labeled unpatriotic/traitorous.

[randalds]

However bmsbms29, Bush did not take us to war to defend our country or our freedom. He did to show up his dad who was smart enough not to go all the way when he had the chance during the first gulf war. Of course Bush hasn't ever had an original thought (while sober anyway, which hasn't been too often), so being the puppet that he is he was led into it by neocons such as *** Cheney who have had this insane fantasy of a western style democracy in the mid-east for decades, in spite of the fact that even a basic understanding of history and the region would have told him it wasn't going to happen. No this is not one of the necessary wars our nation has had to fight in the past. This is a filthy little invasion, an armed robbery, of another country that was no threat to us based on lies and every person who has died in it, both on our side and theirs, has died for nothing. They've all, everyone of them, died in vain. To me that's a war crime of the highest order.

[macusweil]

BUSHROCKS YOUR LOGIC IS SO VERY FLAWED

If an amateur pilot were allowed to fly an F15 and crashed it into the ground would we blame the aircraft or the person flying it?

In the US we have a proud, strong military that follows the orders of the civilian leadership, yes true this makes our nation great.

#2 However, the leadership failed to make sound decisions about going to battle and then again on how best to fight and finish our brave military has been lead down a path of ruin. The GOP lead congress and for the most part the American people gave the Bush administration every available resource, a blank check if you will, and still they botched the effort with disastrous results.

As for this generation, the American people will be for this bungle for the rest of their lives.

[bmsbms29]

No soldier has ever wanted to die during a war - whether the Civil War or WW1 or WWII or the Korean War or the Vietnam War. And no one wants their loved ones to die.
But without wars, without death the U.S. would not be a democracy today.
I am thankful that President Bush is our president - because he is concerned for our country & does not back down from his beliefs just to get people to like him.
I have believed for a long time that we should not leave Iraq too quickly. And I believe that our fighting in Iraq has hurt the terroists & that's why they are trying to get us to leave.
Some of you voted all Democrat thinking they would get us out of Iraq - I guess so since that's pretty much how they campaigned. But even they cannot & should not remove our troops from Iraq too soon.
I am proud to be an American because I know that I am free.

[flolake]

Several of you folks that have been using this site longer than I very likely know a lot more than I about just what CBSnews.com will & won't tolerate.

My intention tomorrow is to try & reach someone by telephone that has some clout.

The likes of "BUSHROCKS1" and "laurieleemoo", also known as lauriepeepeedoodoo, are making some of us sick. Their selfish monopoly really needs to stop or I need to know why not.

There are several tactics I can employ, so if you kind folks start noticing me writing way out of character, you'll know I got the brush OR no response in my endeavors to call 12/11/06.

Juvenile I suppose but I can be creative when I need to be. Please bear with me as I attempt to try and deter these two jacobite bimbos.

[frankly6]

The President is in a quandry. He's got to figure out some way to re-package "Stay The Course".

[macusweil]

"Let's impeach the president for lying

And leading our country into war

Abusing all the power that we gave him

And shipping all our money out the door"

-Mr. Neil Young

[autummin]

Of course the panel agrees with bush--they're all his cronies. Perhaps if the panel was made of people who have firsthand knowledge and experience of what is going on (i.e. Iraqi people and maybe some of the soldiers who are there) we might get a better understanding of exactly how things are going. Americans had no business invading Iraq in the first place.