Bush Hails Waning Violence In Iraq

Military Deaths Down, And Iraqis Are "Taking Back Their Country," President Says

(CBS/AP)  President Bush said Friday that U.S. military deaths have fallen to their lowest levels in 19 months and the Iraqi people are slowly “taking back their country” amid the American troop build up there.

Mr. Bush was speaking at a graduation ceremony for new soldiers at Fort Jackson.

Thirty-nine U.S. troops were killed in October -- the lowest number since March of 2006. According to the military, the total number of attacks on U.S. troops hasn't been this low in nearly two years, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

“Since the surge of operation began in June, the number of IED attacks per week has declined by half,” Mr. Bush told the graduates.

Credit the troop surge, and the coalitions built with Sunni tribal leaders in the western provinces, reports Axelrod.

The question now is whether this is a temporary lull or the beginning of a more peaceful Iraq.

Iraq expert Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution -- a surge supporter -- is cautious, reports Axelrod.

“This is real,” he said. “Security is a lot better in Iraq, but it doesn't mean we know how to get our troops out, and it doesn't mean this is a permanent condition.”

Mr. Bush said that parts of Iraq continue to be violent and that terrorists remain determined.

“But what they have learned about the United States of America is that we are more determined,” Mr. Bush said. “We are more determined to protect ourselves and to help people realize the blessings of freedom.”

Mr. Bush said corruption remains a problem and unemployment remains high, but that Iraqi forces have now assumed responsibility in security in eight of Iraq's 18 provinces.

“With our help, the Iraqi people are going on the offense against the enemy. They're confronting the terrorists and they're are taking their country back.”

Before he spoke, he took a tour of the school's “fit-to-win course,” which requires recruits to negotiate up to twenty obstacles. He addressed about 180 soldiers at the site deep in the piney woods, telling them he was proud of their efforts and that they would help secure a peaceful future for America.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by mh4cbs1 at 01:16 AM : Nov 04, 2007

Well said...

May the leaders of this administration drop into the hottest fires in hell in a suit soaked in their high priced gasoline...every one of them.

[speakinup]

IOWEIGN - yeah, they lowered the standard - but obviously not enough for you to get in.

Is that why you keep watching ?

[ioweign]

I am a "real" American and so are the State Department employees...and talk about making money - how much is spent in one day in Iraq, what a numbskull !!

Posted by IOWEIGN at 11:09 AM : Nov 03, 2007
+ report abuse

******* I am sorry but I DO NOT consider you or those politicians as mericans.. I consider you and those politicians as parasites that clings to a host to suck it dry and at the same killing it.

can we run a war on food stamps??

did you know cindy sheehan is moving into environmentalism...gore is showing the world that its lucrative.


Posted by libsluvsuvs at 12:10 PM : Nov 03, 2007


Enlist - they''ve lowered the standard !!

[nhprophet]

I support Ron Paul and his non-interventionist foreign policy. Hitlery wants to continue our illegal police action in Iraq until at least 2013, and she does not rule out a preemptive (nuclear) first strike against Iran. Ron Paul voted against our (undeclared) war in Iraq, which was sold to us with lies. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies--the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. The war in Iraq has cost more than 3,400 American lives and almost a trillion dollars. We need a leader in the White House who will ensure this never happens again. Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have 750 foreign bases and troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft. We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing our borders against illegal alien who are invading our country from the South. No war should ever be fought without a Declaration of War voted upon by the Congress, as required by The Constitution. Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations. Too often, we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we too become despised.

[nhprophet]

What we need is a President who will show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[nhprophet]

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
- James Madison

"Those that give give up essential liberties for temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- Abraham Lincoln

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and those who would exploit our fear for power and their own personal, selfish, cynical gain."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict through peaceful means."
- Ronald Reagan

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"Commerce with all nations. Alliances with none."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Wars are poor chisels for carving-out peaceful tomorrows."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Ron Paul doesn''t represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers."
- Me

[mh4cbs1]

Yea! Mission Accomplished!!

Only 39 dead troops in October. The 3,850 dead troops have been well worth it! Be honest, does anyone really care? Sure it''s too bad that so many thousands are dead and wounded, but now we will have permanent US bases, a friendly Iraqi government that will let our Oil Corporations take control of their vast Oil Reserves!

Does anyone really care that Iraq''s cities lie in ruins, 2 million have fled the country and hundreds of thousands are DEAD?? Of course not! Even if the entire country were obliterated, the Oil would still be there waiting for us.

So what if some middle class kids are dead or maimed, it''s the chance they took when they enlisted in order to pay for their tuition. Too bad their parents weren''t rich - the rich get massive tax cuts and don''t have to let their kids die in Iraq.

[Con Mohrat]

"The Insugency is on the Wane." "We have turned the corner." "Mission Accomplished."

Where have we heard that before? The insurgency will be on the wane when we are bringing troops home.

[prinzowhales]

A British general some decades ago remarked that the Badu were easily bought and this seem born out by the treachery of some of Saddam''s generals...what is less often remarked upon is the betrayal of other peoples by their leaders...The grandfather of the Morgan banker who ran ''against'' Liebermann in Connecticutt was a Morgan partner who had a picture of Mussolini on his office wall and helped the dictator in all ways possible. He once wrote in a memo that the Bank and its allies would corrupt the Mexicans, buy their politicians and get what they wanted out of Mexico.

What Americans don''t like to think about is that this strategy was successfully used on them by the British oligarchy which gave us their spawn of Satan...the FED...which was no more than the Bank of England all tricked out with the rhetoric of liberal progressivism....naturally, the income tax and the FED and World War I were the most regressive and damaging artifices ever used to destroy the freedom of Americans. There is no more sense in the head of the most retrograde, evangel-oid, tent preaching, Bible-thumping Bush worshipper than there is in the sedate urban Yahoo who sits absorbing the lying, psuedo-intellectual claptrap presented in the pages of the NYTs and WASHINGTON POST...in the mind-numbing annals of half truths of the Chicago School of Economics.

[prinzowhales]

...or, it could be that the insurgents are being successfully bought off, like some of Saddam''s generals. With the putative "anti-al Qaeda" shieks being popped off we may be witnessing the beginning of an Iraqi class war similar to that fought in Latin America over the decades...with the leadership selling out to the Americans and the ''follow-ship'' answering this betrayal with nasty surprises. It was common in the ancient Greek world for lines to be drawn between cities governed by oligarchs and those governed by the people...with oligarchs, routed by revolution from one city fleeing to one controlled by oligarchs in another...rather like the Cubans who fled with their followers following Castro''s revolution where the first order of business was to rouse their business associates and fellow members of the American oligarchical parties and their followers to wage war against the party of the people in Cuba.

[prinzowhales]

To get a real sense of the decreased casualty figures, one needs to see the figures on US military activity levels...numbers of patrols...areas where patrols are going, etc. Also there are reports on the internet of increased rank-and-file hostility to the war and ''missions'' that consist of leaving the relative safety of a base, finding a clear area with a good field of fire and just hunkering down till its time to report back from the ''patrol''...similar to actions taken by US forces in Vietnam.

Particularly disturbing is that the inrflicted casualties on opposing forces were never high enough to account for the falling off of attacks on US forces. An increased presence in Anbar may well have made this field too risky for the insurgents who are now doing, what insurgents do...lay low and wait for the ''surge'' to blow over....or moving operations to another region...end part I...

[libsluvsuvs]

Home by Christmas!....2057...

Posted by Prinzowhales at 11:59 AM : Nov 03, 2007
+ report abuse

*************

and 2057..liberals would still be whinning

[libsluvsuvs]

I am a "real" American and so are the State Department employees...and talk about making money - how much is spent in one day in Iraq, what a numbskull !!

Posted by IOWEIGN at 11:09 AM : Nov 03, 2007
+ report abuse

******* I am sorry but I DO NOT consider you or those politicians as mericans.. I consider you and those politicians as parasites that clings to a host to suck it dry and at the same killing it.

can we run a war on food stamps??

did you know cindy sheehan is moving into environmentalism...gore is showing the world that its lucrative.

[prinzowhales]

Home by Christmas!....2057...

[cfin5]

I hope the Iraqis who love their country triumph! It is apparent the surge worked coupled with the Iraqi patriots "right to keep and bear arms" against criminals. The thought also occurred to me that there could be some of this proverb working in their hearts towards LIBERTY and FREEDOM......You never miss it till you lose it. Or,.....Something missed is the path to regain it.

[ioweign]

nstead of a speech in front of boot camp graduates, Bush should have given his rah-rah speech to the State Department - of course Bush only speaks in a controlled environment and the State Department employees aren''t boots !

Posted by IOWEIGN at 08:40 PM : Nov 02, 2007
+ report abuse
******

man..guess who is upset about this report...

btw..its more appropriate to do the speech in front of these real americans than in front of a bunch of politicians.

if it i was gore..he would had made a movie about it (why not make some money)

Posted by libsluvsuvs at 10:18 PM : Nov 02, 2007

I am a "real" American and so are the State Department employees...and talk about making money - how much is spent in one day in Iraq, what a numbskull !!

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by jowand

Kindly back up your insult by pointing out where I am incorrect, If you cannot, then you prove that you are actually the liar and the idiot.

Posted by brianbwb

Well?

It has been quite some time...

[formrusmcsgt]

Is Bush and his supporters freaking geniuses, or what?!

Posted by closethippy1 at 08:47 AM : Nov 03, 2007

You must be posting from a state home......

[closethippy1]

So, finally, after doing away with half a million Iraqis, having two million of them displaced inside their country and two more million who have left the country, peace is at hand.
Finally, the Sunnis and the Shiites and the Kurds have been separated and sorted out.
No more mixed marrieges, and no more mixed neighborhoods.
That''s what I call mission accomplished. Wouldn''t you? There''s just no one left to torture and kill!
Now it''s a matter of keeping every Iraqi from returning home. The US, like Israel has done to achieve peace in the Holy Land, should demand the Arab countries to absorb all the refugees they have and never allow them to come back home to Iraq.
The US should do its part and never allow Iraqi refugees inside Iraq to return to their now peaceful neighborhoods.
Keep them separated, away from each other and this peace will sustain for decades to come, just like in the Holy Land.
Is Bush and his supporters freaking geniuses, or what?!

[formrusmcsgt]

Iraq expert Michael O%u2019Hanlon of the Brookings Institution -- a surge supporter -- is cautious, reports Axelrod.

%u201CThis is real,%u201D he said. %u201CSecurity is a lot better in Iraq, but it doesn''t mean we know how to get our troops out, and it doesn''t mean this is a permanent condition.%u201D

These qualifiers by Avelrod (which Bush would never use) re more than likely based in the fact that the surge is unsustainable.

Spring will force a return to pre-surge troop levels, and I feel, pre-surge casualty levels.

The insurgents know that they just have to wait a few months and it''s back to business as usual. And what does it cost them to wait? They''re not blowin $10 billion a month on the effort.

They will use the time to plan, re-arm, re-supply, and recruit.

And when all is said and done, the surge will be viewed as a brief respite in casualties and nothing more.