[chiller]

MTP; It's been a year, and we're in a difficult situation.

GWB; I'm not sure about the tone of your question, We ARE welcomed in Iraq. Yes there's nervousness in Iraq because of some uncertainty, but we're making progress. Debate in Iraq is good.

W's handling this just fine, imho. Getting better when discussin future of Iraq, vs. continually answering hit questions from Russert. Better on the offense than defense

[chiller]

W seems to have a good assessment of the political complexities in Iraq...all the factions, etc.

[Alas Babylon!]

Russert on no nation-building quote by Pres Bushg in 2000. President answers (paraphrasing), "We fought a war against Saddam. What are supposed to do, walk away now that we defeated them? There are still terrorists and disgrunted Ba'athists we're still fighting. Democracy in Iraq will stabilize the Middle East."

I might add, this isn't going in and making both sides be nice to each other. And we need to occupy a nation we've defeated before leaving and congratulating ourselves. We learned that in WWI, when we gave up on the world and got Hitler, Stalin, and Tojo for our lack of attention.