Wh-wh-wh-what are you sa-sa-sa-sa-saying?
Posted on 12/01/2005 1:57:45 PM PST by Jean S
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House called irresponsible on Thursday those Democrats who said that President George W. Bush lacked a strategy on Iraq, as Sen. John Kerry said a policy shift was needed to reflect realities on the ground.
Some partisan squabbling was heard the day after Bush laid out his "plan for victory," although Democrats were not as uniformly dismissive of Bush as they had been.
The president, seeking to bolster Americans' support for war in the face of rising casualties and to restore confidence in his leadership, said in his speech on Wednesday that time and patience were needed for training Iraqi forces.
He held out the possibility of a reduction in U.S. troop levels eventually, once Iraqis are able to fight the insurgency on their own and if progress is made on the political front looking ahead to Iraq's December 15 elections.
"Those Democratic congressional leaders who try to suggest that we don't have a plan are deeply irresponsible," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who reiterated it was possible to bring some troops home next year.
A snap poll by CNN/Gallup/USA Today after Bush's speech said 55 percent of respondents believed Bush did not have a plan to "achieve victory for the United States in Iraq."
Polls in recent months have shown waning public support for the 2 1/2-year war. Concern over the war has also been a factor pushing Bush's popularity ratings to the lowest of his presidency.
Kerry, who lost the presidential race to Bush a year ago, said Democrats, "are all in agreement that there has to be a profound shift of admitting the reality on the ground and beginning to establish a schedule that we can understand on behalf of the American people about transfer of authority."
The Massachusetts senator described a scaled-down role for U.S. troops, to help guard oil pipelines and guard people working on construction projects.
"You don't need 160,000 people to be doing what we're doing in Iraq today, this is not World War Two, this is not Korea, this is not Vietnam. The principal enemy are IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers," Kerry said.
Kerry was at the White House for a ceremony honoring the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks, but quickly dove into the Iraq topic in talking to reporters on the White House driveway.
MISTAKES ADMITTED
A sharp Bush critic, Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, told CNN he did not hear a solid plan from Bush but that he appreciated that the president "leveled with the American people" by admitting mistakes had been made in Iraq and that much remained to be done.
"He laid out the goals, said it's going to be hard, said give him time, but he didn't tell us how he was going to change the game plan to accomplish that," Biden said.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech military leaders had not adequately explained progress in that country to Americans worried about the rising cost in casualties and money.
"Guys like me have not articulated well enough what is happening in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Pace said. "Every place I look in the (Iraqi) political and economic realm I see progress. And clearly inside the security realm I see enormous progress."
The State Department's Iraq coordinator, James Jeffreys, declined to be drawn out on when U.S. forces would be able to hand over to Iraqi troops and return home.
Asked whether Iraq was in the throes of a civil war, he said Bosnia had been a civil war and Iraq was not at this stage, adding that an early U.S. withdrawal raised this possibility.
(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming and Charles Aldinger)
Count me in on McClellan!
"Irresponsible" is just such an understatement when it comes to this current bunch of Dims. Inept, deaf, dumb, or blind maybe...but irresponsible, no way.
I had to change my tagline in (dis)honor of John Murtha.
I totally agree about McClellan. Bush needs someone strong enough to stand up to these people in the press. MCClellan just doesn't cut it.
I think that it's effective when they name the terror masterminds that we have taken out and all the plots they have discovered. We have taken out HUNDREDS of leaders of the terrorists and it should be repeated daily.
I'll second that.
The sad part is that he DOES!<<<
The sad part is that is that it is not only Kerry that gives a zambozzi what he thinks.....millions of Americans think the same way.
Don't know where you live mic9852, but if your neighbors are all pulling for America to win, you live on a strange island.
Instead of brave bravado, we need to face up to the fact that a huge segment of the population is against America winning in Iraq.
We need to defeat these people just as assuredly we need to kill Islamic terrorists.
Well put. I wish I would have said that.
You MUST be talking about Zell Miller!
Exactly, even if the White House won't do it for themselves, do it for our people in uniform. They OWE it to them to fight this PR battle. Far too much is at stake.
It runs in the family.
GHWB somehow managed to lose to Clinton despite winning the Cold War and Iraq I.
The fact that Democrats are perverted baby killing socialist un American crooks is not something that has been recently dsicovered.
The only thing irresponsible is the White House PR department.
It could start correcting its absurd performance by accusing Kerry by name of giving comfort to and emboldening our enemy.
Then they could demand the identities of the 8 red bastards that supplied miltary secrets on pscyh ops to the LA Times (U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press) and jail the reporters if they don't comply.
They won't.
The PR war will be won, but not by this group.
Great analysis, and typical of the media spin on Iraq!
The Los Angeles Times, in its report citing unnamed U.S. military officials, said that, while the articles are based on fact, they omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments. Dozens of such articles have run at a time when the U.S. government is pledging to promote free speech and democratic principles in Iraq, the paper said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan today said the Bush administration is ``very concerned'' about the report.
``The United States is a leader when it comes to promoting and advocating a free and independent media around the world, and we will continue to do so,'' McClellan told reporters at a press briefing. ``We want to see what the facts are,'' he said.
I don`t know how you have time to do it all. I guess to be a Freeper one must first be a military genius, then a master politican, and now, we have to be super spin doctors.
The Rats can say anything, they are responsible for nothing. McClellan speaks for the President of the United States and has to remember that.
You want that job?
I would still like to see General Honore take Scotty's place. Fully armed of course. I miss his press conferences. Where did he go?
Any one of us has a better chance of winning the WH in 08 than Kerry does. He's french toast.
There were plenty of similar complaints about Ari. While I also prefer him over Scott, there's not that big of a difference. The main problem is the media, not the WH spokesman.
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