WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007
Official: Iraqis Turning Surge Into "Joke"
Despite Erosion Of Support, White House Denies Talk Of Iraq Pullback
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Play CBS Video Video GOP Support Fades For Iraq War Opposition to the president's strategy for Iraq is growing, and it looks like the time for the troop surge to work is running out. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Video Republicans Seek New Iraq Plan With opposition to the administration's policy in Iraq rising in the Republican ranks, the White House may be considering a change in strategy. Bill Plante reports.
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(AP / CBS)
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Interactive Iraq: 4 Years Later The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Interactive 110th Congress The balance of power shifts and new leadership takes control as the latest session convenes.
A senior Pentagon official tells CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod that a debate is underway to determine what conditions must exist, short of victory, to begin pulling troops out of Iraq.
Still, White House press secretary Tony Snow said that all of the additional troops had just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress now.
"You are not going to expect all the benchmarks to be met at the beginning of something," Snow said. "You are hoping that you are going to be able to see progress in terms of meeting benchmarks from that beginning stage to what you see in two months."
The administration also tried to lower expectations about a report due Sunday on whether the Iraqi government is meeting political, economic and security benchmarks that Mr. Bush set in January when he announced a buildup of 21,500 U.S. combat forces.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates shortened a planned trip this week so he would be in Washington to attend policy meetings aimed at coming up with the report to Congress.
In Florida for a military ceremony, Gates participated in a video conference Monday morning with the president's national security team, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman. He was to have continued on to Latin America, but changed his plans so he could return to Washington Monday afternoon.
Asked if Pentagon officials were studying a change in Iraq strategy, Whitman would say only that the military is "focused on implementing" the current strategy.
The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, with the tally for Iraq alone nearing a half-trillion dollars, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.
The figures call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar province would cost only $5.6 billion through the end of September.
Mr. Bush is under growing pressure even within his own party to shift course in Iraq as the war drags on and casualties climb. At least 3,605 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003. Mr. Bush's approval rating in the polls has sunk to record lows.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said there had been "a steady erosion for the president's policy" in Congress because of the "tremendous loss of life among our troops" in June and "the failure of the Iraqi government to pursue the political reforms that are necessary to quell the sectarian violence."
Earlier this year Mr. Bush vetoed legislation that would have set a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals. In recent days three Republicans — Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico — have announced they can no longer support Bush's Iraq strategy and have called on the president to start reducing the military's role there.
"There is no debate right now on withdrawing forces right now from Iraq," Snow said.
"The president has said many times that as conditions require and merit that there will be in fact withdrawals and also pulling back from areas of Baghdad and so on," the press secretary said. "But the idea of trying to make a political judgment rather than a military judgment about how to have forces in the field is simply not true."
A Senate GOP aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said administration consideration of withdrawing some troops soon wouldn't be all that shocking because members have been told that the troop buildup is temporary.
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See all 206 CommentsNo only you are in a religious war, the US military was sent to Iraq to as Bushit said, "To disarm Iraq, to free its' people, and to protect the world from grave danger". The danger he officially posited was that Iraq had WMDs and was a threat to use them. All lies.
Now you wish to turn it into a "religious war", even though no part of Bushit's declaration mentioned religion, and no congress, or world organization would condone such.
So if you wish for a religious war, go fight it yourself, we can certainly use less of your type on earth.
As for South park reference, you obviously don't get the point, that after discussion of important matters, most will say OK, then forget about it. This tendency was humorously illustrated by that cartoon, unfortunately your apparent lack of a sense of humor makes you unable to understand the point.
Posted by jpfrizz at 09:31 PM : Jul 10, 2007
One of the saddest and most frustrating parts of all of this, is that even if we ever rid ourselves of Bush and his cabal, we cannot ever be rid of the crazy idiots who are too brainwashed and lunatic fringed--that put him and Cheney in power. If only, his demise also meant theirs. America would be about 250% better off.
Again I think that's an education problem here in the US. The right wing needs it's boogiemen and the Muslims are the current flavor for them. Of course that means frightening the people into believing that all Muslims are evil terrorists. Of course that's ridiculous, but an unfortunate number of people here do buy into it. All we can do is to keep fighting that propaganda with the truth and hope is sinks in.
Actually we have been wise to them since Nixon, but I am reminded of the South park movie, where they arrested Terrence and Phillip. A young student was speaking to his friends about the miscarriage of justice, abrogation of freedom of speech etc. When he finished, there was a 3 second silence, then one of the kids said, "lets go play tether ball".
The last time i was in the States, I was mildly taken aback at how little people were actually aware of, that we outside the US media sphere of influence know to be true, the "radical Muslim terrorists" are just a small fringe group, as relevant to Muslims as the KKK is to US Christians, and that there is considerable financial support from radical anti Semitic US groups like the KKK and Aryan Nations flowing to them, and many, like Usama Bin Laden have direct connections to Bush Sr. and Jr., and the CIA.
What can I say? Ultimately, as jaded as I am also, I have to believe in the American people. If not then there is truly nothing left fighting for. I'm just keeping hope alive. In the movie "A Face in the Crowd" there's a line that goes "We get wise to 'em. In the end we always get wise to 'em. That's our strength." I still believe that.
The armed forces are not needed here. Europe and pretty much the rest of the world have done a good job at tracking down terror suspects and preventing attacks with the use of homicide detectives.
There's no need to make of this a big spectacle. Bush and Co. have made terrorists bigger than life by using our military to persue them. By invading Iraq we have set a huge stage for them to perform and gain recruits instead of have them in hiding and out of public view.
Getting out of Iraq will not be the end of the world nor will it reflect badly on the US. In fact, the US will be showing wisdom in doing so.
I mean, if we pretend for the war on terror to go on for decades then police work is the most effective way to go about it.
Don't get me wrong. The initial work had to be done by our military in Afghanistan to throw the Taliban out of power and deprive AlQaeda of its only training base.
From then on is a matter of finding them one by one and prevent them from forming cells in other countries.
So please don't feel so hurt when a withdrawal from Iraq finally happens. The fight will go on but on a much smaller scale and with more precision.
You have optimism usually ascribed to youth, to compliment the wisdom of your age. I am a bit more jaded, however, because I seem to remember (correct me if I misheard, or misread);
"We will not engage in nation building"
"The Iraqis will welcome us with open arms"
"Mission accomplished"
"We will be out of Iraq within 30 days"
"We will be out of Iraq by January"
"We will be out by March"
"We will be out by June."
"If there is no progress by September..."
And now we hear,
"If we pull out, there will be a mess" (general Lynch, what a great name, said this lunacy just days ago)
"As long as it takes to achieve victory" (how they define victory is unclear to say the least)
"We will have to set up permanent bases in Iraq."
And each time the goalpost was moved, not a peep from the Democrat leadership.
I have to go. The wife has an early wake up for work in the morning and my pounding on the keyboard is keeping her awake. Back tomorrow. Keep the faith. Our side WILL win. The people themselves will make sure of it. They're slow to anger, but impossible to stop when on a mission and their mission is quickly becoming getting rid of Bush and his ilk.
Posted by brianbwb at 12:58 AM : Jul 10, 2007
Amen. The actor Richard Dreyfuss is currently leading a drive to bring basic civics back into the public schools. In many schools it's actually an elective course now! That's outrageous! This lack of education is what has lead to such stupidity as people actually believing that we work for (or report to) the president, rather then him working for us as our public servant. Some people today actually believe that the president really is above the law or has powers that he simply does not have. All because they lack the education in basic American civics.
Again, American Civics 101.
Posted by RandalDS at 12:56 AM : Jul 10, 2007
I still say impeachment would be a complete waste of time and money. It would distract our government when I'd rather have them concentrating on getting out of Iraq and the public concentrating on the election.
Posted by nottellin1 at 12:48 AM : Jul 10, 2007
No, let's stay within the law. Just because Bush abuses the law to keep power, does not mean we can break it to take him out. Impeachment takes time and the American people have to believe that it's happening because it was their idea or they will not support it. By September Bush said there would be progress in Iraq. The American people "get" that and will not allow him to go further. If he tries (and he will) the rumble for impeachment will sweep him out of office, because the people want it.
Posted by RandalDS
For this we really can blame the neocons who have reduced federal budgets for education ever since they realized that the college students that led the charge against Nixon and Vietnam were "too smart".
It is possible nottellin1 may be of the age where he was educated in a post Nixon public school, that is to say very little...
Posted by nottellin1 at 12:52 AM : Jul 10, 2007
Actually stupidity and arrogance are illegal in Bush's case, because they lead him to lie us into a war. That's the crime of treason and murder. It's also a war of aggression which is a war crime under treaties that we have signed and supposedly honor. So yes, Bush is guilty of crimes. It's just a matter of the convictions.
Again, American Civics 101.
Re: "No, not ignore. Set aside for now. The goal is to rid us of the rats"
I'm through waiting, and I'm not sure that we agree on who the 'rats' are.
Posted by RandalDS at 12:47 AM : Jul 10, 2007
And what law is it exactly that the Senate will convict Bush of breaking? Stupidity and arrogance are not illegal, if they were, we would have to convict you too.
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