Sen. Lott Joins Republican War Weary

Second-Ranking GOP Senator Says Progress Must Be Seen On Ground By Fall

(CBS/AP)  The second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Trent Lott, said Monday that President Bush's new strategy in Iraq has only a few months before his fellow Republicans will need to see results.

Lott's comment put a fine point on what Senate Republican stalwarts have been discussing quietly for weeks. It also echoed remarks made during the weekend by House of Representatives Minority Leader John Boehner (read more).

"I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas," Lott told reporters. Fall, or autumn, is roughly the last three months of the year.

Lott would not say what he thinks should happen if Congress does not see improvement in the security situation by then. But he said lawmakers have time before they must decide.

Mr. Bush announced in January that he planned to send to Iraq 21,500 more combat troops, plus several thousand more support troops, in an attempt to tamp down violence in Baghdad and the western Anbar province. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said he could give a better assessment in September of whether the strategy is working.

Republicans have agreed to uphold Mr. Bush's veto of $124.2 billion legislation that would have funded the war but called for troops to start coming home late in the year. Without the two-thirds majority support needed to override the president's veto, Democrats this week were redrafting the bill.

White House officials have sought to play down the expectations of the September review as merely a progress report, but many Republicans have latched onto the date as a critical juncture. War funding for this fiscal year, while still under negotiation, is expected to run out Sept. 30.

"Obviously, his (Petraeus') response or developments will make a difference in the next fiscal year," said Lott.

Lott said he generally agreed with Boehner, who told "Fox News Sunday" that, "By the time we get to September or October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B."

Thus far, Republicans have stood behind the president's increasingly unpopular war policies, including the troop increase and an open-ended war commitment.

Yet the comments made by Boehner and Lott are an acknowledgment of the concern expressed by some lawmakers in private; that their support of Mr. Bush could further damage the party, which lost control of Congress in the November elections.

The senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, said Boehner is correct.

"General Petraeus will be back. He'll make a report," Lugar said. "Some things will go well. Some things will not go so well, but we'll still have an obligation."

The new Democratic leadership is pushing to begin pulling troops out of Iraq.

[rharrin1]

"I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas," Lott told reporters. Fall, or autumn, is roughly the last three months of the year.

Lott would not say what he thinks should happen if Congress does not see improvement in the security situation by then. But he said lawmakers have time before they must decide.

The way lott puts it he is trying to assure bush gets what he wants same old stay the course.

If he means what he has said why not vote WITH the democrats, he won't because of his deceit and lying.

[realpatriot1]

mudrose,

I'm not the one lecturing about the Schiavos and missmyhubby's husband; I never insinuated that I knew better than others what the truth was there.
I don't think I'm the one blindly accepting and not asking questions in those instances as you claim.

I'd be interested in knowing what transcripts you've read and research you've done to draw your conclusions about other people's private lives. I must admit that I haven't done that or asked many questions about other people's business. However, it's not fair to say that I don't ask questions. Like many others on this board, I ask questions of you all the time but I never get answers, just insults.

[mudrose-2009]

Clinton said he had rejected calls from Congress and elsewhere to "cut and run" from Somalia because he believed that both Somali lives and American credibility were at stake.
(source The Tech, Friday, Oct 8, 1993)...

Good point, but it was prior to 9/11, the logic being no justification.

[mudrose-2009]

mudrose - it always comes back to that BJ, doesn't it? How many Americans got killed because of the indiscretion? How many Americans lost limbs as a result of an indiscretion? How many Iraqis lost their homes and their countries because of an indiscretion? How much standing in the world did America suffer as a result of an indiscretion? And how many Americans will have nightmares and other horrible aftereffects of war as a result of an indiscretion? Your argument holds no water.
Posted by jjreding

Well you're just going to have to go back in time and count the dead in Beruit, Somolia, Lebanon, WTC 1 and USS Cole. Little indiscretions on the Clintoid's part -- lots of blood.

[mudrose-2009]

We are just going to have to agree to disagree on your premise that all Dems want to do is denegrate our public institutions!

Posted by ozilot

A reasonable position. Spoken like a true adversary but one with class.

[mudrose-2009]

It's amazing how mudrose knows more about Terry Shiavo than her husband and more about missmyhubby and her husband.

Mudrose doesn't just believe in projecting her values into America's bedrooms, mudrose is apparently right in the bed.
Posted by realpatriot1

And you apparently know better what missmyhubby and Michael Schiavo lived through. Another one who doesn't ask questions, doesn't read transcripts, doesn't research, only blindly accepts whatever is for dinner, right?

[cdnunn]

Sounds like John's boener for the President's war policy is getting limp.

[ramos937]

My comments are not about Senator Lott but still are relative to Iraq.

Last month, the Democrats had their Iraq funding bill vetoed by President Bush who said deadlines do not work in Iraq. This week, the Parliment Sunni leader stated that if reforms promised long ago by the Maliki government was not in place by 5/15/2007, he would pull his block out of Parliment and not support Maliki. Today, the news is that the Maliki government is hard at work to put the subject reforms in place by 5/15/2007. This proves that deadlines do work. If the Sunni leader had not set the 5/15/2007, Maliki would have sat on the reforms until the end of time.

Congressional Republicans should take note.

[jerr11]

The politicians are buying time for Bush.

With the lives of young American men and women on the frontlines who will die needlessly just so that some face saving exit strategy can be worked out for the fall.

[toldyouso21]

Gates has ordered that 35,000 more troops be deployed this fall. (and of course, they will need auxillary units to assist them) funny isn't it? Exactly the number Guiliani said we needed--and with Republicans saying if the surge doesn't work by the fall--we will need a plan B (Really plan N or M by now). Looks like "Plan B" is MORE of the same. Funny how the "surge" required Congressional comment--but this new and improved increase of 35 thousand is just based on a whim of the military and Bush. That would be 10 more brigades folks with the requisite increase in funding demanded to support them. This will never stop while Bush is in office--unless the people in Congress pull the plug. Bush just keeps upping the ante.

BTW, if CBS is so late breaking, why are they always 12 hours to 24 hours behind Roadrunner news page and others?
Posted by toldyouso21 at 12:29 PM : May 08, 2007