Posted on 12/20/2005 6:27:53 AM PST by smithone
It comes to this. More than 2 1/2 years after going to war in Iraq, President Bush is asking for the nation's patience and its trust. It's a rather audacious request. The humility and candor, relatively speaking, that came in Sunday night's speech from the White House are woefully late. The commander in chief still has failed to articulate a convincing plan for securing an otherwise elusive peace.
If only Mr. Bush had displayed such awareness of his critics long ago. A candid admission of just how difficult it would be to prevail in a pre-emptive war might have kept his credibility from eroding. Even now, though, the President does a disservice to the public he's trying to lure back to his side.
"Do not give in to despair, and do not give up on this fight for freedom," he says.
To question a war that has claimed more than 2,100 American lives and thousands of Iraqis, and left many more severely wounded hardly qualifies as despair. To state so forcefully that it does undermines the public confidence the President so badly needs.
So does Mr. Bush's statement that "defeatism may have its partisan uses, but it is not justified by the facts."
Where are the facts to support Mr. Bush's unwavering assertion that the United States is winning this war?
Last week's elections, orderly and notable for high turnout, even among Sunnis, were encouraging, surely. Only there's little to suggest that a democratic government, once it's formed, will be able to function without a continued American military presence.
The President talks about improvements in Iraqi military and security forces. Yet the fact that Mr. Bush can merely hint at reducing the number of American troops in Iraq, without any commitment as to how many or when, drives home the point -- however inadvertently -- that the mission is altogether different.
Again, to quote the President, "Our troops in the field, who bear the burden and make sacrifice, do not believe that America has lost." Perhaps not.
But neither do they necessarily seem to share the Bush administration's myopic optimism. A Marine named Cpl. Bradley Warren said as much to Vice President Dick Cheney as he visited Iraq on Sunday.
"From our perspective, we don't see much as far as gains," Cpl. Warren said, before asking the vice president for his assessment.
It's a very different view, to say the least. Among Mr. Cheney's great concerns are that the news media don't reflect the administration's belief that the situation in Iraq has, in his word, "turned the corner."
"I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we'll see that the year '05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq," Mr. Cheney says.
Or will it be? By what measures will such success be defined? Democrats, among others, are demanding that benchmarks be established, and quite rightly so.
The opposite possibility, of course, is that this will go down as the year when the Bush administration kept pleading for more time to win the peace in Iraq, only to find out that it had lost the public's trust.
We were warned fully how tough the road would be, years ago. Not the fault of the President that nobody in the newsrooms was paying attention.
Welcome to FR.........
and you joined today to post this.
The Albany TU is a POS newspaper.
Like children, liberals define "patience" as the time between getting a new toy, throwing a tantrum, and getting another mew toy. They constantly act as though Iraq will go away if we just leave and move on to something else. Iraq and our allies who live there aren't going anywhere. The only question is whether they were liberated by inconstant cowards (i.e. liberals).
Welcome to Free Republic.
These people are desperate. The elections have terrified them. They have been running full tilt since the elections occured trying to discredit Bush in any way they can. Shameful and obvious.
What I really hate is seeing a nOOb sign up today to post a Bush-hater article from an insignificant paper written by an unknown minion of Hillary's liberal troops.
Go away. Before the Christmas kittens get you!
NYT-wannabes. I bet it chapped Albany-Slimes-Unread pretty good that the NYT beat them to treason on the NSA story.
No one with any sense or intelligence needed to be asked for patience. Only liberal/socialist/communist losers who prefer to put our soldiers and citizens at risk rather than have a government of the majority.
Hey Senators: Want to do something profoundly good for the nation? How about a law holding media accountable for violations of national security? Our soldiers may DIE because of this, and every terrorist cell just disappeared from our radar.
Next US deaths in the WOT can be layed on NYT's and the leakers doorstep. Of course, these won't be the first.
The pinhead Liberals conveniently forget that the President warned everyone after 9/11 that the War on Terror would be long, hard and the successes could not all be publicized. I'd like to meet up with a few of these leftist columnists in a dark alley and help them see the light.
Oh, we were all nOObs once - ease up. I like seeing frothings from moonbat-buk-tu every now and then.
I say, Welcome to Free Republic, Merry Christmas!
And what else would be expected from a state that chose a carpet bagging HillaBeast to be it's Senator? New York City's socialism has spread to the rest of the state.
Time to cut off Federal funds to places like NYC so that they can fund their own delusions.
On the other hand, the Kittens need entertainment honing their predatory behavior. ;-)
The left is panicked. They know damn well Iraq has turned the corner and won't be an issue they can pound Bush with very much longer.
The stupidity of the MSM boggles the mind.
I joined in 1998 but I've decided to change my name. When I first started posting here we were much nicer to newbies than we are now. It's interesting to see this from the perspective of a newbie.
Exactly, on the contrary now Bush can pound the liberals with Iraq!
Let the beatings commence until morale improves!
Selective memory by the Bush hating MSM has further eroded their credibility, if that is possible.
In 1998 circumstances were a lot different.
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