Bush: Iraq Study Group Agrees With Me
President Praises Report Recommendations That Support Administration, Ignores Criticisms
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(AP Photo)
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Interactive Iraq Study Group Report Bipartisan commission warns that situation is "grave and deteriorating."
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Interactive Iraq: A Turning Point? New Congress, change at the Pentagon, study group report; what does the future hold?
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Who's Who Iraq Study Group The bipartisan panel conducting independent assessment of the situation in Iraq.
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.
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.Listen to President Bush's radio address
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.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Listen to President Bush's radio address
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 106 CommentsAnd so 9/11 was a delusion??
You obviously need to READ the report.
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 . . .
You are 100% correct.
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.
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.
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
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
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
"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.
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.
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.
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.
The President is in a quandry. He's got to figure out some way to re-package "Stay The Course".
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
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