Bush Rejects Calls For Change On Iraq

Urges Congress To Delay Action Until Top General Issues September Report On Troop Surge

(CBS/AP)  President Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, said Tuesday he won't consider it until hearing a fresh assessment of the war effort from his top commander there this fall.

"That's what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going," Mr. Bush said. "And that's the way I'm going to play it as commander in chief."

Gen. David Petraeus is due in September to present a progress report to Congress on the effects of the recently completed troop build up in Iraq. Frustration in Congress — among leaders of both parties — has led to calls for changes in strategy before then.

But a military official who spoke with Mr. Bush recently says the president told him no matter what the final report in September contains, if the top U.S. commander in Iraq recommends the surge should continue, it will, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

For now, Mr. Bush is saying he won't be swayed.

"We just started. We got all the troops there a couple of weeks ago," he told the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a coalition of Northeast Ohio companies.

"I believe it's in this nation's interest to give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations," Mr. Bush said. "And I believe Congress ought to wait for Gen. Petraeus to come back and give his assessment of the strategy that he's putting in place before making any decisions."

The president's comments come amid a new USA Today/Gallup poll that shows 71 percent of Americans want all troops out of Iraq by next April, except for a limited number deployed for counter-terrorism efforts, adds Axelrod.

Tuesday the White House scrambled to respond to a deeply frustrated public and Congress, while also warning that his troop build up needs more time to work.

"I wouldn't ask a mother or a dad — I wouldn't put their son in harm's way if I didn't believe this was necessary for the security of the United States and the peace of the world," Mr. Bush said. "I strongly believe it, and I strongly believe we'll prevail."

Back in Washington, the Senate wrestled with a defense spending bill, including efforts to withdraw troops and other ideas to wind down the war. With Republican support fading, and a new report expected to show little progress, the war continued to hang over Mr. Bush.

Meanwhile, the president was also trying to pressure lawmakers into taking up what's left of his shrinking domestic agenda.

In stops through the Cleveland area, he hoped to draw attention to a strung-together list of topics: energy alternatives, affordable health insurance and restrained spending.

He began in Parma with a tour of GrafTech, a maker of graphite products that are used in fuel cells. Mr. Bush playfully climbed about a fork lift powered by such a fuel cell. He is promoting alternative fuels as a primary way to reduce U.S. consumption of gasoline.

Later, he dug into a heaping corned beef sandwich over lunch with community leaders in Cleveland. He then visited the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit hospital where Mr. Bush got hands-on lessons in new ways to repair aneurysms and probe the brain. "Amazing," he said.

The president's itinerary underlined the White House strategy: get beyond the collapse of immigration reform by focusing on what's next — and blame Congress for inaction.

Even though Democrats run the legislative branch, Mr. Bush's own party crushed his bid to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants and strengthen the border. Three-quarters of the Senate's Republicans, including the chamber's leader, voted to derail his immigration bill last month.

The White House sees a chance to regain some advantage in the yearly spending debates. The aim is to simplify the arcane appropriations process into a message that resonates with the public: Mr. Bush will stop Democrats from spending too much of the public's money.

Indeed, Mr. Bush is itching for a fight and promising vetoes. The Democrats' blueprint would increase spending on federal agencies about $22 billion above Mr. Bush's request. He claims it would amount to the largest tax hike in history by allowing some tax cuts to expire.

"The Republican Party has lost a lot of the advantage we used to have," said Charlie Black, a GOP strategist close to the White House. "People used to view Republicans as the party that would keep down spending, keep taxes low and restrain the size of government. This gives us a chance to remind people of the differences."

[perception5]

You ever wonder why our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack "hardly" ever talks or writes stories about our Democrat controlled Congress? New poll on Congress:

"WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - These are tough times for the Democratic-led U.S. Congress, where partisan battles have led to little progress on big issues and have made lawmakers collectively less popular than President George W. Bush.

Congress, typically never all that popular to begin with, starts the second half of 2007 with an anemic job approval rating of about 25 percent, down from 43 percent in January, with one Gallup poll ranking lawmakers at 14 percent.

Experts attribute the woeful rankings to an inability to force a change in direction in Iraq, the priority Democrats campaigned on to gain power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in last November's elections.

But that is not all. There has been little to show on other priorities, including a change in Social Security and other entitlement programs that will run out of money in the years ahead, in addition to overhauling a health care system that has left millions uninsured and a broken immigration policy."

Wow! 14% in one poll. Maybe if the Dems keep having GOP "political lynching" hearings in Congress they could reach "single digit" approvals by November 2008.

[pepperp1]

"How many dead, wounded and disabled are there going to be while they continue to thrust our boys into the middle of a civil war?" Biden said.

Yes Republcian Senators, how many more need to die in the attempt to save your *****.

[iceman_1960]

[Bush] reiterated that troop levels in Iraq "will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C."

That will only happen after American becomes a military dictatorship, like the Japan of Tojo and Yammamoto.

Before then, our U.S. Constitution makes it crystal clear that civilian government (what he contemptuously dismisses as "political figures") as represented by Congress retains all decision making control on military matters.

[iceman_1960]

George W. Bush's repeated displays of complete ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, should be reason enough, and more than reason enough to Impeach and Remove him from office.

Such ignorance in a president meets any reasonable definition of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

[gslinger3]

Hey all you pot smoking, long haired, Abortion loving, Unborn child hating, Terrorist loving, USA hating, global warmed left wing radical 60's relic hippies.

Peace Out!

[pepperp1]

Snow has no creds, none, he never did, if he is out front you know the story is ***.

And get this women out of office Maine Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had said on Monday, "What many of us are looking for is a new strategy that would not be a precipitous pullout with all of the problems that would cause, but rather a plan to exit over the next year." This faux arguments, goop talking points and lies are intended to provide election cover not protect our troops call her on it; show your States strength get her out in 08.

[feelfree1]

Re: "What we want to see now is whether the surge is working."

###

%u201CI%u2019m fleeing my home today and won%u2019t take anything with me. I cannot see my children dying. ...US troops are invading our houses, shooting at our doors and killing innocent people and I don%u2019t want my loved ones to be the next victims,%u201D said Mamun Ali, 45.

%u201CThey made it clear during their raid on 30 June that they were going to return to finish the militants and surely dozens of innocent Iraqis are going to die just for remaining in their homes,%u201D

%u201CSpiteful%u201D US action

%u201CThe action taken by the US military was spiteful; ...The killed people were only civilians and many locals have started to flee the neighbourhood..."

"Women, children among dead"

"Several women and children were among the dead and injured, according to Lt-Gen Shakarchi. Three women have also disappeared during the raids; witnesses said they were arrested by some Iraqi police officers. The body of one of the women was found on the morning of 1 July in the outskirts of the city. She had been sexually assaulted before being shot, Shakarchi said."

%u201CPeople are scared to leave their homes to buy petrol for their generators or fetch water. Many families will soon start to run out of food and many shops are closed. Locals are desperate and prefer to stay inside their homes rather than get killed while walking on the streets,%u201D

www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73049

[micma-2009]

Bushism:

"Give my chance a plan to work."

[j-whitman]

gslinger3,,,, Bush has miserably Failed our Nation & Military

[tejasdemo]

No more patience ! Bring the troops home now !

[feelfree1]

tejasdemo,

Re: "No more patience ! Bring the troops home now !"

Agreed.


www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow

[processorr2]

We need to stay the course and support the troops because these colors don't run.

[ammermantm]

Posted by gslinger3 at 12:24 PM : Jul 10, 2007

You forgot Apple pie hateing and Puppy kicking. clearly if I do not agree with you I am against everything you love. it is as simple as that.

[actornaught]

Even if Iraq were to turn into Happy Land today, this miserable excuse for a president and his private war are both still utter failures, 3600 times over. w and those few clueless types that still support him all need to rot.

[drummer94]

"White house urges patience on Iraq..." And the American people urge the white house to get OUT of Iraq- we are LOSING patience.

[skyk-2009]

Wow! 14% in one poll. Maybe if the Dems keep having GOP "political lynching" hearings in Congress they could reach "single digit" approvals by November 2008.

Posted by perception5 at 12:19 PM : Jul 10, 2007

So in your Small and insignificant little mind this poll proves what? IF you think the American people are NOT going to hold Republican's Responsible for the continuing of a Policy that has failed so badly, when they do NOTHING but block every effort by Democrats to change the course in Iraq, I think you are going to be one seriously disturbed Conservative. You really need to get out amoung the people Sparky!! Then you would understand why Republican's who face the voters next year are beginning to turn on Bush.

[j-whitman]

Iraq hasn't come close to meeting benchmarks,
, Half of thier military won't fight thier own people, reconstruction has failed...
. And our military cannot hold the ground they take
, Equipment isn't being repaired or relpaced,
, Many of our troops aren't trained for the mission & come from other branches of services
-------------- FUBAR -------------

[j-whitman]

White House Urges Patience On Iraq -- LOL --- "Wait till we are out of office" is what they really mean.

[processorr2]

As a gay Republican I have to say that Tony Snow is very very cute.

[bobnjersey]

[Snow said he thought news accounts of the status report on Iraq were too gloomy ... "Benchmarks are not a way to figure out how to get out of Iraq," he said on CNN. "They're a device for figuring out how to succeed in Iraq." ]
[tony snow - professional liar for bush admin]

no tony ... they are the means for understanding that you won't succeed in iraq ... which history could have told you if you bothered to read it.

[SIDNEYWILLIAMSMD]

Somewhere Gingus Khan is laughing sadistically at the letters to this website both from the surrender now libs,the namby pamby Neocons and the "sophistry of CBS reporting many of whom will be destroyed by his more worthy students, known as Al Qaeda. Sad. Very sad.

[processorr2]

We need to stay the course and support the troops because these colors don't run.

[incog-nito]

Bush: "I urge Americans to be more patient. There's only 1 1/2 years before I leave office and leave this mess to my successor."

[j-whitman]

doctorwho,,,, Sad, very sad indeed -- Now senior republicans are yelling "Surrender" -- Bush still can't flush a win from this quagmire in any aspects ------ What do you expect from a Major Strategic Blunder fron the beginning ????? --- This his his so-called "Center of the War on Terror" ?????
--- 3,605 Americans KIA for no gain at all ---

[bobnjersey]

[... and the "sophistry of CBS reporting ... ]
[Posted by doctorwho4 at 01:06 PM : Jul 10, 2007]

sophistry?

don't understand the genghis khan reference but you get points for using the work sophistry.

of course ... you lose all those points for the use of the phrase 'letters to this website'.

[harp1963]

Patience my a s s! This war was wrong from the beginning and charges should be filled against the dictators who are responsible for the deaths of over 3600 young American men and women, in additon to the over 20,000 who will be maimed for the rest of their lives.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

[pepperp1]

Exactly...........
Opposition to the Iraq war has reached a record high, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds%u2026%u2026.Bush approval rating has reached a new low: 29% 26% on other polls and this from the conservative polls%u2026%u2026%u2026...Longest sustained rejection of any President in American history.

[bareemperor]

This was NEVER a 'war'.

Enough already with the Bu$hit.

Did the NeoCons engineer 9/11 for their gain?

[red164]

Posted by doctorwho4 at 01:06 PM : Jul 10, 2007


The peacemakers are ridiculed as idealists, cowards, and collaborators with the latest enemy our plutocracy has created to justify its endless wars.

We had a war because there are powerful interests in our country that are geared toward making money from war. How? Let us count the ways. There are companies that help break things, by making the tools for violence and destruction, such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. There are companies that fix what gets broken, such as Bechtel and Halliburton. There are companies that protect people as they break things and as they fix what's broken, such as Blackwater and Vinnell Corp. There are companies that want our government to smash across borders so they may bring new products and infrastructure, companies that we will see set up shop in that country. There are companies that want our government to smash across other countries' borders so they may suck the resources out from underneath the people there, such as the big oil companies. There are companies that like the US to attack other countries so they may have something entertaining to tell their audiences in the time between commercials: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN.

[cofmanaaron]

"We're now about two weeks into having the surge operational. What we want to see now is whether the surge is working. We're at the starting point now."

People, they have been saying this stuff since the war started. To all of those who say 'stay the course', you seriously need to put down the pipe and take a serious look at what has been happening from the get-go in Iraq. Utter disaster. Now all the right-wingers out there keep repeating: 'we're making progress', 'last throes of the insurgency', 'the media isn't reporting the good things there'. After 4 years, where are we now? We have not gained a single inch. Didn't I hear Snow say that stuff about the surge just starting last month, and the month before that? In fact, if you Reps would just remember you had a brain you'd realize that this 'new strategy' is just a revamp of the old one. Iraq is depleting resources that could be used to REALLY

[j-whitman]

What's the Plan Bush ???

Just how do you recover from a War started by lies, a War that was a Major Strategic Failure from the start ??

How do you recover the 3,605 lives lost for your Failures, bad leadership & incompetencies ???

[pepperp1]

Bush's current rating ranks in the bottom 3% of more than 1,300 Gallup presidential approval ratings since 1938 lol, what a loser yet 2/3 of his repugs co conspirators still support the Shrub, pity that.

[red164]

Weapons companies also exert influence via "briefings," "position papers" and op eds from "policy centers" and "foundations" that include people connected to these companies (and other companies with an interest in making war for profit). Some of these think tanks are funded in part by weapons companies or other companies that profit from war. Some of these companies even get a tax break for such "charitable contributions." (For more on this phenomenon, I recommend William D. Hartung's book, How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? (2003) and Jeffrey St. Clair's forthcoming Grand Theft Pentagon).

But it's not just the government that these companies seek to influence. They will try to influence the media and the general public, through think tanks and ad campaigns. They know that if there's a climate of fear, then the public will be assuaged by the government's buying more weapons. Various officials will work to prove they're "tough on defense." Officials who are "weak on defense" will not stay in office long.

The companies also hire lobbying firms. These firms make money from war, too. In fact, the US government has hired PR firms to help the government "sell" its wars, such as the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

http://www.counterpunch.org/foley09152005.html

[bareemperor]

BEST POST ON THE SUBJECT:
The peacemakers are ridiculed as idealists, cowards, and collaborators with the latest enemy our plutocracy has created to justify its endless wars.

We had a war because there are powerful interests in our country that are geared toward making money from war. How? Let us count the ways. There are companies that help break things, by making the tools for violence and destruction, such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. There are companies that fix what gets broken, such as Bechtel and Halliburton. There are companies that protect people as they break things and as they fix what's broken, such as Blackwater and Vinnell Corp. There are companies that want our government to smash across borders so they may bring new products and infrastructure, companies that we will see set up shop in that country. There are companies that want our government to smash across other countries' borders so they may suck the resources out from underneath the people there, such as the big oil companies. There are companies that like the US to attack other countries so they may have something entertaining to tell their audiences in the time between commercials: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN.

Posted by red164 at 01:24 PM : Jul 10, 2007

[cofmanaaron]

PT2
.....protect americans. This war was never about protecting America. It was about George Bush's blind ambition and the grudge he had against Iraq. How many more lives have to be spent and how many more Billions of dollars for one man's disasterous zeal? Fight terrorism yes, but do it! Don't bog your troops down in a situation they can't win just because you can't admit you were wrong. Republicans, wake up and smell the stench of 3,500 dead for a lie!

[pepperp1]

Not sure those soldiers are so young anymore many of this surge dead are up in the 40 something range pretty soon you will have to go to Iraq before receiving your Soc Sec check...

Exactly...........
Opposition to the Iraq war has reached a record high, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds%u2026%u2026.Bush approval rating has reached a new low: 29% 26% on other polls and this from the conservative polls%u2026%u2026%u2026...Longest sustained rejection of any President in American history.
Posted by pepperp1 at 01:20 PM : Jul 10, 2007
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patience my a s s! This war was wrong from the beginning and charges should be filled against the dictators who are responsible for the deaths of over 3600 young American men and women, in additon to the over 20,000 who will be maimed for the rest of their lives.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/0
9/60minutes/main592330.shtml
Posted by harp1963 at 01:19 PM : Jul 10, 2007

[watcher269-2009]

Yeah, Come on now Americans. Haliburton has not had a chance to meet their financial goals yet this year, after all, they have to pay for the new Dubai headquarters they built and pay for the CEO's new hacienda there and, lets not forget - Cheney's new ranch in Dubai -oops - you weren't suppose to know about that. Come, why can't you understand - they need more time! Anyway - it's not like its your money they're spending.

[j-whitman]

pepperp1 --- Bush is still gleeful,, his polls are higher that Cheney's

[red164]

Jeffrey St. Clair is the Seymour Hersh of environmental journalism."-Josh Frank

From the F-22 fighter jet and B-2 bomber to the Stryker tank and Star Wars, Grand Theft Pentagon chronicles how the Pentagon shells out billions to politically wired arms contractors for weapons that don't work for use against an enemy that no longer exists. St. Clair shows how many of the biggest arms contracts were literally inside jobs, negotiated by Pentagon generals who later went to work for the very same corporations that were awarded the contracts.


July 5, 2007, 8:22 PM EDT

Bill Barto has had heartbreaks in life, but there is one he doesn't think he can ever forget: the day not long ago when he heard through friends that F-14 Tomcat fighter jets -- once the pride of the Navy's fleet -- are being shredded to fine dust.

"It [the F-14] means a tremendous lot to me," said Barto, of Bay Shore, who worked for 20 years at the former Grumman Corp. in Bethpage, most of it as a technical illustrator on the Tomcat program.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon suspended sales of any F-14 parts, Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the Defense Department, said this week. Further, Dearden said, the Pentagon has signed a three-year, $3.7-million contract with a St. Louis firm, Tri-Rinse, to shred F-14s, which cost about $35 million each.

So far, she said, 23 of the planes have been shredded.

[pepperp1]

At the Pentagon%u2019s request, Senate defense authorizers tucked deep within a defense bill a repeal of the department%u2019s restriction on granting security clearances to ex-convicts, drug addicts and the mentally incompetent.


WHY?

[condumism]

6/5/07: Fed Chairman and Republicon Bernanke said he believes some of the forces that figured in the slow growth of the US economy in the 1st quarter of 2007 were due to weak federal defense spending that "seemed likely to be at least partially reversed in the near term." Here we are folks, smack in the middle of the military industrial complex that is now the number one wheel behind the US economy. Our Fascist, paranoid Republicons fear machine continues to throw money at the needless US Military. Want to talk about government waste? The US National Labs are a perfect example of throwing money at worthless causes. Los Alamos National Lab has a staff of about 9,000 people, most of whom have absolutley nothing to do with the defense of America. PhD's all over the place creating useless models of hypothetical future events, mostly for salaries well above $100,000 per year. And many of these PhD. schleps are running private businesses on the side from Los Alamos, with virtually no oversight from the "for profit" corporate entity known as LANS that now skims $59 million per year from this epicenter of fraud, waste, and massive abuse of US tax $$$. WAKE UP AMERICA, YOU'RE BEING ROBBED EVERYDAY BY THE CORPORATE US MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, WHO HAVE BOUGHT AND PAYED FOR EVERY RETHUGLICON in ELECTED OFFICE!

[tejasdemo]

It's hard to imagine what planet these guys live on. At this point, their press conferences and things they say simply can not be taken seriously.

[pepperp1]

CAUSE:
Removing the restriction opens the door to security clearances for high-profile felons, such as I. Lewis %u201CScooter%u201D Libby, the senior White House aide whose prison sentence was commuted by President Bush last week.

%u201CCould a Scooter Libby be hired by DoD?%u201D Aftergood said. %u201CThe answer is, he wouldn%u2019t be automatically disqualified.%u201D

[wogerwabbit]

"I fully understand that this is a difficult war. It's hard on the American people but I will once again explain the consequences of failure,"

Those consequences being that the evil Bush cabal will look even more like a$$holes than they do now. I think it's time to quit BSing around and storm the palace and behead the lot of them.

[lars2008-2009]

I declare jihad on all jihadis that jihad against my jihad. They are infidels in the eyes of God and must be stopped. May we quicken the coming of Jesus by attacking all Muslim lands for the glory of God All-Mighty!

[j-whitman]

Bush is still urging Patience on the 9/11 Commission requirements ----- America Is Not Safer

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Democrats-Terrorism.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[bogusbones]

There hasn't been one legitimate reason why we're still there other than trying to establish a democracy in a country where, due to religious factionalism, a democracy doesn't have a chance of working.

I can go on and on, but patience is what the American people are running out of. We continue to spend enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars to support a continuing fiasco.

Many years ago a close relative had to stop construction on a huge federal project. He was villified for his decision. But he told me it was throwing good money after bad. Sometimes you just gotta' cut bait.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, in a language you can understand. You're batting less than .200 and you've made errors at critical times during the game. It's time you were sent to the minor leagues.

[Syndicate]

I guess I should be use to it but I still can't beleive the number of morons who post here. People who swallow the liberal line, hook line and sinker. Too bad some of yuou will never learn to think for your selfs. But then if you could think you would be a neocon. If you can't beat em join the idiots who name call.

[red164]

Al Queda the overstated problem?

There are a total of 87 press releases, would be a representative sample, as well as, obviously, an up to date one.


Only 29 of those 87 press releases mentioned al Qaeda at all; 58, or two-thirds, made no reference to that organization. Further, of those that attributed violent acts to some enemy of the U.S. and the Iraqi government, 37 mentioned persons other than al Qaeda; e.g., "insurgents," an "extremist group," an "IED cell," etc. So, far from focusing on al Qaeda to the "virtual exclusion" of other groups, 55% of the time, the military does not mention al Qaeda at all.

[lars2008-2009]

I declare jihad on all jihadis that jihad against my jihad. They are infidels in the eyes of God and must be stopped. May we quicken the coming of Jesus by attacking all Muslim lands for the glory of God All-Mighty!