In White House, Debate Is Rising on Iraq Pullback

NY Times ^ | July 9, 2007 | DAVID E. SANGER

[bnelson44]

White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.

Mr. Bush and his aides once thought they could wait to begin those discussions until after Sept. 15, when the top field commander and the new American ambassador to Baghdad are scheduled to report on the effectiveness of the troop increase that the president announced in January. But suddenly, some of Mr. Bush’s aides acknowledge, it appears that forces are combining against him just as the Senate prepares this week to begin what promises to be a contentious debate on the war’s future and financing.

Four more Republican senators have recently declared that they can no longer support Mr. Bush’s strategy, including senior lawmakers who until now had expressed their doubts only privately. As a result, some aides are now telling Mr. Bush that if he wants to forestall more defections, it would be wiser to announce plans for a far more narrowly defined mission for American troops that would allow for a staged pullback, a strategy that he rejected in December as a prescription for defeat when it was proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.

[jacquej]

Considering the source, I have a hard time trusting the validity of the info.

Now, if it gets into the National Enquirer, maybe it would have more “weight”.

[dighton]

There are no clean words for these finger-in-the-wind sons of bitches.

[IncPen]

More wishful journalism from the left.

[ken21]

what the leftwing media wants is an iconic photo

like the one of the helicopter in

saigon with the teeming masses of vietnamese storming the

building.

[Brimack34]

Matt Drudge said on his radio show that the source could be Dingy Harry.

[Rome2000]

This is what happens when a "free press" collides with national security interests.

Putin knows how to handle the enemy within, Bush doesn't have the foggiest.

[swatbuznik]

Are there more defections than usual? If there are, I haven’t noticed the MSM beating this into the ground...

[roses of sharon]

Is this an old article? I think I have read it 12,348,864 times!

[smoothsailing]

In White House, Debate Is Rising on Iraq Pullback
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: July 9, 2007

..White House officials fear..

..according to several administration officials..

..some of Mr. Bush’s aides acknowledge..

..said one senior official, who, like others involved in the discussions, would not speak on the record about internal White House deliberations...

The only source identifiable for this article is the writer.This is not news, it is navel-gazing.

[bnelson44]

Novak has a similar article:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862838/posts

[Mogollon]

Cutting and running worked so well in Viet Nam...we should do it again. /sarc off.

[raftguide]

“political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them”

If that is truly the case, I hope their surrender earns them a lot of constituents, because I won’t be one of them. Our Congressman, John Doolittle, who squeaked out a win last year, now is moving left and joining the surrender crowd, apparently thinking that will save his ass after getting his home raided by the FBI for ties to Abramoff. Unless lots of leftist will now jump on his bandwagon he’s out of luck, as a large core of his Republican supporters in the District now swear he’s had the last cent and vote he’ll ever get from them. My dad taught me to always dance with the one that “brung you.” Maybe a few pols should learn that lesson!

[petertare]

The Pres must hang on until the Sept report. That much heralded report will likely only quantify the improvements or areas of failure. I look for Petraeus to be factual without suggesting a subsequent course of action. That is the right tone—and will force Congress to debate the issue with some measure of truth as opposed to the din of screeching we have thus far been hammered with daily.

The public will have the info, and thus it will be much harder for the politicians to play games with it. That is why I think the administration will try hard to hold out until Sept.

[kcvl]

Sanger is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group.

David E Sanger

WASHINGTON — President Bush was told more than a month before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that supporters of Osama bin Laden planned an attack within the United States with explosives and wanted to hijack airplanes, a government official said Friday.

http://tinyurl.com/yskod4

[DakotaRed]

Any “defecting” GOP Senators or Representatives need voted out of office next time around. As they bring about the Democrats desired defeat in Iraq, the Republican party dies with them.

May as well blend the two liberal groups together and conservatives can build a new conservative group worthy of my money and support.

Where is GOP leadership, fiddling as the party burns around them?

[ruschpa]

Bush’s Iraq policy is getting more and more out of his control everyday. It simply boils down to numbers and votes. He just doesn’t have enough Republicans in the Congress. Unfortunately this surge strategy should have been tried a year or two ago like some other Republicans were suggesting...

[bnelson44]

Things may not be that bad. Congress recesses in 3 weeks until Sept.

[smoothsailing]

I knew about CFR.

So, it's all about the whole "New World Order" thing.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I don't doubt this one bit,,,as I have posted before,,, The rotation of some units is NOT going according to what we have been told by the DoD,,,Friday,July 13 2007,,, the 2BCT 10th.Mt.Div.will have been in combat for 15 months, They have been told(sometime ago)that their return time is now the middle of November,,,19 months in country,,, Why ? Nobody to replace them,,,Sept 15 is the "push come to shove" date for the iraqi army/etc. ...tipping-point ?,,, The very worst thing to do is a pull-out,,,so,,,

[do the dhue]

I want the pillars to fall around those Republican Senators who are getting weak in the knee:

I want politicians standing behind our Generals plans. I don't want Generals standing behind our politicians plans.

Lugar and Domenici need to understand that we must show resolve to our enemy. Terrorist are telling people in Iraq not to work with the Americans or they will kill their family. They are telling the Iraqi people that we won't be there forever. We must show resolve so the people can begin to trust their new government and the US over the terrorist. If you do not show resolve you are part of the problem and you are a National Security risk.

We need to put this situation into perspective:

We have been in Iraq for four years and we lost 3,500 Troops. In four years of WWII, we almost lost 500,000 Troops. During the first twenty one days on Iwo, we averaged a thousand losses a day. We have been in Iraq for four years and lost 3,500 Troops, right? Well, that is the middle of the fourth day on Iwo Jima. 52,000 fell in two years of Korea. Our bloodiest day took place in 4 hours not four years. We saw 22,000 casualties in fours hours at Antietam.

What happened to the words, 'we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival of liberty"?

I'll tell you what happened, the Demorats silenced those words and now a mess of RINOs like Lugar and Domenici are silencing those words. Along with our media, the leaders of the Demoratic Party, and the RINOs need to grow a back bone, pickup a weapon, and stand a post. We need to show our Troops and our enemy resolve.

We will leave Iraq when the Iraqi people can protect themselves from an outside threat and maintain some peace from within. Until then, we must help them fix the problems they face.

Lugar needs to watch this video of Ronald Wilson Reagan:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7568233662206815073&q=Ronald+Reagan+-+A+Rendezvous+With+Destiny+%2B+video&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[cowdog77]

Unfortunately this surge strategy should have been tried a year or two ago like some other Republicans were suggesting...”
___________________________
After the twin towers went down, Bush had a “blank check” and could have leveled all the hot spots in Iraq and put an end to the “peaceful religion”. He’s too busy nation building to realize our troops have been fighting with hand behind their backs in this PC war.

[AmericanInTokyo]

You're right. I mean, it's not like we're not wanted there anymore or anything like that!

[Stallone]

Religion of Peace was the beginning of the end for Signor New Tone.

[Enchante]

The ENEMEDIA is in full battle cry, working both openly and behind the scenes to lose this war. It is no coincidence, of course, that the RINO weasels and MSM are launching such a coordinated onslaught just as Reid is planning to re-launch the ‘Rat attacks in Congress. I’d love to have recordings of all the discussions that have gone on among the Aspen and CFR cliques, etc. in the past few weeks. When we see the RINOs in full coordinated stampede we can be sure that they have been talking to try to give each other weaselhood implants.

[AmericanInTokyo]

At least the one benefit to the troops, if the Democrats win, is the moment he or she takes office in January 2009, and if our troops are still there in Iraq, we can expect the Mass Media in the US to do a full 180 degree turn. They will be patriotic, optimistic, supportive and they will begin to mouth that we can in fact WIN under this new Democratic President.

It is sarcasm of course, but it is true, and it will at least be a plus for the boys and girls in the field.

The mass media in the USA will not allow the US to win any more wars under a non-Democrat President.

[Rummenigge]

you don’t want bush to handle internals as putin does.

[Rummenigge]

so they all died for nothing in the end...

say that isn’t so.

[MNJohnnie]

Sure. Like the NY Times, after repeatedly stabbing this Administration in the back has any contacts in the White House.

Sorry NY Times, given your proven record of simply making stuff up to backstop your Editorial views, until you get some people to go on the record on this, we must assume this is just another one of your lies.

[MNJohnnie]

Utter moron ideas. Napoleon in Spain, Hitler in Eastern Europe and the Russians in Afghanistan followed your dogma. They all failed badly.

Counter Insurgency is not Total War. WAY past time the Freeper Generals quit screaming their idiot talk radio slogans and actually LEARN some of the most basic facts about Iraq.

[Timbo64]

You are 100% correct.