Aug. 25, 2007
Bush: Iraqis Are Sacrificing In War, Too
President Says The U.S. Is Not Bearing Toll Alone; Cleland Claims Bush Is Ignoring Facts
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Play CBS Video Video Troop Reduction Recommended A top Pentagon official is expected to recommend that the number of U.S. forces in Iraq be cut by half in order to reduce pressure on an already strained military. Karen Brown reports.
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Video Slow Going For MRAPs MRAPs are the safest vehicles yet for U.S. troops in Iraq. The problem is that there are nowhere near enough of them available. David Martin has more.
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Video Sen. Warner's Defection Top senate Republican John Warner, R-Va., issued a challenge to President Bush, requesting that some troops cease operations in Iraq and be brought home by Christmas. Bill Plante reports.
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Members of the U.S. Army's Alpha Company, 82nd Airborne run up to a roof while searching an area immediately after rockets were fired by insurgents on August 24, 2007 in the Hurriya neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. (Getty Images)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Timeline Iraq Copter Crashes Some of the deadliest helicopter crashes in Iraq and Kuwait since the start of the war.
"Here at home, it can be easy to overlook the bravery shown by Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians who are in the fight for freedom," Mr. Bush said in a radio address taped at his ranch in central Texas. "But our troops on the ground see it every day."
Mr. Bush told the story of an Iraqi man who stepped forward to intercept a suicide bomber who was running for a team of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens near Baghdad. The bomber and the Iraqi man died as the bomb detonated, but the soldiers and citizens were spared.
A citizens group, Mr. Bush said, tipped off police about the location of an al Qaeda cell believed responsible for the attack, which lead to arrests.
The president's positive take on Iraq's internal efforts comes as lawmakers and the broader public in the U.S. have grown deeply frustrated over Iraq's inability to improve its affairs.
"As security improves, more Iraqis are stepping forward to defend their democracy," Mr. Bush said. "Young Iraqi men are signing up for the army. Iraqi police are now patrolling the streets. Coalition and Iraqi forces have doubled the number of joint operations."
The president's address comes days after he compared the Iraq war to Vietnam — linking the U.S. pullout back then to the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and warning that withdrawing troops now could have similarly disastrous consequences.
Former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Vietnam, said Mr. Bush is ignoring the facts.
Despite enormous sacrifice by Americans, Cleland said in his party's radio address, "We find ourselves mired in a civil war with no end in sight and Iraqis unable or unwilling to make the political decisions necessary to end this conflict."
Earlier in the week, a bleak assessment by the U.S. intelligence community found that the Iraqi government is hampered by rampant violence and deep sectarian differences. It bluntly reported, "To date, Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively."
Mr. Bush's strategy this year was to build up U.S. forces in Iraq and give the country's leaders the security and time they need to make fundamental political progress. Mr. Bush is awaiting a pivotal report in September on how much progress has been made with the buildup.
"We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight," he said in another plea for patience from the nation. "But by standing with the Iraqi people as they build their democracy, we will deliver a devastating blow to al Qaeda, we will help provide new hope for millions of people throughout the Middle East, we will gain a friend and ally in the war on terror, and we will make the American people safer."
The president's radio address capped an active week in which he appeared to distance himself from embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, only to endorse Maliki the next day; delivered a speech in which he likened today's fight against extremism to past conflicts in Japan, Korea and Vietnam; and dealt with the release of the sobering intelligence estimate.
That estimate found that Iraq's security will continue to "improve modestly" over the next six to 12 months, provided that coalition forces mount strong counterinsurgency operations and mentor Iraqi forces. But even then, it said, violence levels will remain high as the country struggles to achieve national political reconciliation.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 145 CommentsWhy won''t those Europeans help clean up our mess?
Why is everyone making us clean up our own war of choice?
Patently pathetic and hypocritical.
Yes, literally 99.8% of America is sacrificing absolutely nothing. And of course Bush, Cheney and the filthy rich they represent are PROFITING from this obscene, needless WAR and the tax cuts for the rich.
Bush and Cheney LIED us into this needless WAR so that they could invade Iraq -- Hitler would be impressed by their methods of deceit and manipulation of our population.
JAIL BUSH AND CHENEY FOR THEIR CRIMES
-They would have not wasn''t it of you, Moronic Liar...
THEY KNEW ALONG WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
"Because if we''d gone to Baghdad, we would have been all alone. There wouldn''t have been anybody else with us %u2014 it would have been a US occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over, and took down Saddam Hussein''s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That''s a very volatile part of the world.
And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it%u2026uh%u2026the Syrians would like to have in the West. Part of the eastern part of Iraq the Iranians would like to claim, fought over it for eight years. In the north, you''ve got the Kurds. If the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It''s a%u2026it''s a quagmire, if you go that far in trying to take over Iraq.
The other thing was casualties. Uh%u2026everyone was impressed with that fact that%u2026uh%u2026we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action and for their families, it wasn''t a cheap war. And the question for the President in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad and took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans was Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many, and I think we got that right."
Congress needs to be suspicious of any redeployment or withdrawal option overseen by this Commander in Chief, he is a very poor judge of talent and dose not follow through, never accountable to the people of America. I frankly do not trust him to bring our troops home safely nor to minimize the aftermath and harm to Iraq during such an action.
Quote on Bushs AG.
By any reasonable standard, the Gonzales Era at the Justice Department is void of almost all redemptive qualities. He brought shame and disgrace to the Department because of his lack of independent judgment on some of the most vital legal issues of our time. And he brought chaos and confusion to the department because of his lack of respectable leadership over a cabinet-level department among the most important in the nation.
An influential group of conservatives convinced President George W. Bush that it was in America''s best interests to conquer Iraq as a first step toward dominating the oil-producing nations in the Middle East. There was no "exit plan" because we never intended to exit. The plan was, and is, to build military bases in Iraq and stay there forever. Our leaders also see Iraq as a place to make money. So Bush & Co. have set up their friends to cash in on the rebuilding of Iraq.
Posted by antoniof123 at 07:49 AM : Aug 27, 2007
Because the neocons believe that it''s only a boondoggle if they ADMIT as much. By refusing to admit the obvious, they keep the base in line.
They obviously don''t believe in the old saying that states "a rose by any other name"....
Someone needs to give Dubya a calendar. His "surge" began in January and he uses the term "overnight"?
Hey George - in 4 days t will be September, bud.
Maliki''s government went on a 5 week vacation! It''s too hot in Iraq they say, the Iraqi government plans on returning from their seaside resorts the first week in September just in time to help General Petraus with his September Report to Congress. Yep, the Iraqi''s are sacrificing real hard, it must be tough laying stretched out in the cool breeze on the beach, sipping exotic drinks and thinking about our brave troops dying in 130 desert heat for their nation, sacrificing their thoughts on our brave troops when they could be concentrating on their 5 week vacation instead must be tough!
It is of course complete lunacy to suggest that we should have stayed in Vietnam - is the idea to have stayed another couple of decades? Two million dead Vietnamese and 65,000 dead US troops was apparently is not enough death and destruction???
The ''bloodbath if we leave'' scare raised by Nixon of course did not materialize. In fact the sick, horrific Vietnam bloodbath, that WE CAUSED, finally ENDED when we finally left.
As for Pol Pot, it was our destabilization of the region (and likely coup-involvement against Sihanouk) that allowed to Khmer Rouge to gain power. This horror can be added to US empire-policy blowback. We could not even prop up a puppet regime in South Vietnam, does Bush think we could have invaded Cambodia with additional hundreds of thousands of ground forces to fight Pol Pot at the same time?? Would Bush have volunteered (the spoiled little hypocritical, draft-dodging coward).
STOP THE INSANITY! SAVE AMERICA
JAIL BUSH/CHENEY, the NEOCON FASCIST MURDEROUS THUGS
So, our troops are sacrificing lives and limbs. The Iraqis are sacrificing also. Gee, isn''t it odd that the people who stared this sausage grinder are the ones who have NEVER sacrificed anything: Darth Cheney, Richard Pearle, Donny Rumsfeld, Scooter, Wolfowitz, etc. Oh, and let''s not forget our Incurious George who decided that a cushy assignment in the Texas Air National Guard was too much of a sacrifice. It cut too much into his beer and barbecue sessions.
What hypocrisy and gall.
You might be right, but you have more faith in Bush than I do. If Congress had voted the funds for withdrawal he would''ve spent them for escalation and dared the Congress to take him to their case to the Gonzo Justice department and the Roberts Supreme Court. He would either prevail or, more likely, tie it up until he''s out of office.
The only way to get the troops home is over his dead body with a bipartison Congressional veto-proof majority that takes the relative partison advantage out of the equation.
I believe that will happen as the Republicans get closer to their own re-election decisions and the Republican primaries.
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