TALKING POINTS: Recent Progress in Iraq

George W. Bush ^ | June 14, 2004

[RWR8189]

The President's Plan for Iraq

• President Bush has outlined a five-step plan for Iraqi sovereignty. The President's plan calls for:  (1) handing over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government; (2) helping establish the stability and security in Iraq that democracy requires; (3) continuing to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure; (4) encouraging more international support; and (5) moving toward free, national elections that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the Iraqi people.
   
• This past week proved that the President's Iraq plan is working - and that the international community is coming together to help the Iraqi people secure their future.
   
• UN Security Council Resolution:  On June 8, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1546, which supports free elections and reauthorizes the multinational force to help provide security in Iraq.
  
  • The unanimous resolution is a big victory for the Iraqi people and for the diplomatic efforts of the coalition.  The international community is now on record standing shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people, embracing the new Iraqi Interim Government as well as the way forward to full Iraqi sovereignty.
  • This is a critical element of the President's five-step plan for Iraqi sovereignty.  The resolution clears the way for the transition to Iraqi sovereignty on June 30, when the new Iraqi government can begin making the decisions about security, economic progress, and other needs of the Iraqi people. 
  • The coalition will continue to help in every way possible on the economic front, the security front, and the political front.  The Iraqi people are stepping forward and taking responsibility for the future of their country.  Already, Prime Minister Allawi and the new Iraqi Interim Government have taken big steps to keep Iraq on the path to national elections by January 2005 - leading the way to a representative government of and by the people of Iraq.
    
• Strong Support at the G-8 Summit for the Iraqi Interim Government and the President's Plan to Promote Democracy in the Broader Middle East:  
   
  • Iraq:  The G-8 Leaders welcomed the unanimous approval of UN Security Council Resolution 1546, and noted the importance of the multinational force for Iraq succeeding in its mission.  The G-8 Leaders pledged to:  stand united in their support for the Iraqi people and the new Iraqi Interim Government; provide support for the Iraqi people and the new Iraqi Interim Government; provide support for elections for the Transitional National Assembly no later than January 2005; meet before the next donors conference to identify how each of the G-8 countries can contribute to reconstruction; and work together to achieve debt reduction for Iraq in 2004.
  • Progress in the Middle East:  The G-8 Leaders committed to a historic "Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa" to support political, social, and economic reform in the region.  This Partnership builds on President Bush’s "forward strategy of freedom," which he announced last November.
      
• First Trip to U.S. by Free Iraqi President:  President Bush invited new Iraqi President Sheikh Ghazi Al-Yawer to attend the G-8 Summit, marking the first time the President of a free Iraq has visited the United States.
  
  • President Al-Yawer thanked the American people for their sacrifices in freeing his nation.  He said, "I'd like to thank the American people for the sacrifices that the brave men and women of the United States [made] toward trying to liberate Iraq."  He emphasized that the Iraqi people were working to make sure that these sacrifices were not in vain.

[smonk]

GWB has had a plan in Iraq since about ten minutes after the
statue fell. he formulated a plan, and he is executing his
plan. by and large, events are unfolding according to the
script.

and all the dem prattle in the world about "not having a plan" isn't going to change the fact that this is coming off
for the most part EXACTLY like GWB said it would a year
ago.

and as far as election year politics go, crowing over the
coffins of our dead soldiers as they are shipped back home
is NOT a campaign strategy. it a recipe for merely
forestalling your own collapse.

[Red Dog #1]

The same people also used to accuse President Reagan of not having a foreign policy!

[smonk]

exactly. the man that defeated communism was accused by the
dems of his day of not having a foreign policy. now who's
the idiot?

and, of course, the john kerrys and assorted other ankle-
biters of the world are, in many cases, the exact same
people that can't seem to comprehend GWB's plan for iraq.

[WOSG]

Ronald Reagan was a "warmonger", and yet delivered the fall of the Soviet Union without a war between the 2. A victory without war is the best kind of peacemaker there is.

Now they tell us Bush is the 'danger to the world', not the terrorists. Who are they kidding?

10 years on, after our successful liberation of Iraq spreads the seeds of reform in the Arab world, after the creaking dictatorial supporters of terrorism are overthrown, then we shall see the fruit of G W Bush in Iraq.

The same people will continue to consistently underestimate freedom and conservatism.

[cookcounty]

GW announced the June 30th transition date a very long, long, long, long time ago. Does anybody have the actual time when it was?

[smonk]

seems like it was LAST June . . . but I don't recall
exactly.

[Valin]

IRAQ THE MODEL
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

The Iraqi trap
Some people think that the American officials didn’t expect such fierce fight from the Islamic groups that keep flowing into Iraq from almost all directions after toppling Saddam. They say that the American army have fell into a trap in Iraq. I want to say that I agree on Iraq being a trap, only it’s a trap for the terrorists not the Americans.

Given their belief in that the war on Saddam and establishing democracy in Iraq was the key stone in combating terrorism, the American administration surely had expected (not planned) this situation as a result of freeing Iraq. The American administration said it more than once that it’s better to fight terrorism outside America than wait until being forced to fight it inside her borders.

This war is good for America in many ways; it eliminated a potential danger, it gives America a good and very much needed ally in the heart of a hostile area, one that is a ‘member of the family’, unlike Israel and Turkey, it secures American interests in the region and makes America safer by attracting the main efforts of the terrorists away from her borders and by building a sort of a nucleus for a democratic Arab Muslim world that will surely diminish the dreadful threat of a combined terrorism and WMDs.

Here comes the question: why Iraq? What’s there about Iraq that makes here the best location for such a battle?

To start with, and from the political point of view, Saddam’ regime was one of the weakest regimes in the world with a very limited support whether from outside or inside Iraq and this fact made that regime much easier to topple than any other dictatorship. The other fact is that in almost all Arab and Muslim countries, the opposition is mainly formed of Islamic parties which makes the change rather dangerous, as it may well result in a theocracy that’s if those parties were ready to accept the change and didn’t fight the “infidels” side by side with their oppressors the dictators since “they’re still Muslims”.

It’s true there are Islamic groups in Iraq and some of them are radical but they’re still much weaker than anywhere else in the Muslim world and are far from being the majority and most of them have accepted democracy even if they dream of a theocracy since they know they have no chance in making their dreams come true with only a minority of Iraqis on their side. Even geography favors Iraq being a plain area with no jungles or mountains that favors the guerrilla fighting (except in the very friendly northern parts).

Now America is of course paying a high price in this battle but it has to be done and it’s incomparable to what she would lose had she decided to leave the terrorists alone. Not only the American officials have agreed that they can afford this high price, as most of the soldiers I’ve met or heard seem to accept and respect their mission along with their families, friends and many other Americans.

That’s about the Americans, but what about the Iraqis? What will they win and what will they lose? Well, the Iraqis have lost and will lose many lives as a result of the terrorist attacks in addition to the economic losses. In return, and at the end of this struggle, they will win their freedom, democracy and prosperity.

From the technical point of view and if we count on numbers and statistics, Iraqis' losses in lives are much less than the regular losses during Saddam’s times with different reasons, and regarding economy and despite the damages that the terrorists are causing, Iraqis' average income is increasing day by day. Iraqis' money was never their money, it was Sadam’s and now it’s back to them. Still this sounds cruel, as does anyone have the right to put Iraqis lives into such “chaos” and risk just because he saved them from a worse situation?!

I think the answer to this question is NO, since it’s still up to the Iraqis to decide between going the hard way or giving up, ask the Americans to leave and go back to “safe” sheep’s life, to the organized and controlled torture, rape, murder and humiliation. This is not very difficult to acieve, it's enough to stop cooperating with the coalition and demonstrating to ask them to leave. The coalition may not oblige but they will certainly lose.

I, being an Iraqi have accepted the challenge and I’m not alone; hundreds of thousands of IP, soldiers, officials and workers in different fields have decided the same by doing their job, cooperating with the coalition and marching persistently towards building their country, maintaining their freedom and embracing the changes towards democracy. Other Millions of Iraqis are supporting this process each in his own way.

We didn’t take the decision of the war, that’s right, but we’ve accepted it with full knowledge of the consequences and that’s why you cannot see one large demonstration asking the coalition to leave. We gained our freedom, after Saddam’s fall almost for free, as most of the enormous losses we suffered before that time were not the result of real attempts to gain freedom; they were in most times the result of mere disapproval with the Ba’athists or were part of the systematic killing to maintain the paralyzing fear at a maximum. Maybe it’s time to pay and this time we are ready because we are free from that fear after seeing the weakness of our enemies and we have seen what we were missing and are not ready to lose it no matter what happens. We will pay the price and we will not surrender or compromise, we will fight and we will win.

-By Ali.