Posted on 12/20/2006 5:42:05 AM PST by kristinn
President Bush will hold a press conference this morning at 10 a.m. Eastern time. He will be making a statement on Iraq.
I'm here.
I just saw a commercial advertising Hillary Clinton appearing on the View at 11:00am. I hope the News conference lasts long enough to knock her off the air. Although I'm sure the topic for the day on the View will be "Who is more like Hitler, Bush or Rumsfeld?"
General Pace apparently said the same thing, the same week Gates took such fallout for saying it in Committee. I haven't seen where the President said it, but I've been on the missing climbers thread. I think it's in the context of, we're not losing or winning right now, we're just kind of hanging in there.
I don't think he means militarily.
We haven't lost any military engagements. I think he means the country is too unstable, too inept and ill-equipped in every way to begin to stand on its own feet and succeed, which is how the President has defined victory in Iraq.
I just went and looked and saw the quote the president made: "We aren't winning but we aren't losing". And he said that he hasn't heard that the military is "broken" but he has heard from commanders that it's "stressed".
Thanks, Howlin.
We may need earmuffs today. Every time the WP tells a lie a bell rings.
Correcting paragraphing error...
"I don't think he means militarily.
We haven't lost any military engagements. I think he means the country is too unstable, too inept and ill-equipped in every way to begin to stand own its own feet and succeed, which is how the President has defined victory in Iraq."
They played the taped recordings of an interview with a reporter??
oh, good grief......a day of broads slamming the president on the view.......imagine the view of those cankles she has......along with rosie......yep, that'll make the beast lood better....right.
THanks for the ping.
He's right .. but we are also in the middle of a war and many in the media will twist what he is talking about
Call my crazy .. but I've never heard of any war in history that's been stress free
Here are the President's actual words during a WaPo interview:
Question:Are we winning in Iraq, in your estimation?
President Bush: You know, I think an interesting construct that General [Peter] Pace uses is, "We're not winning, we're not losing." There's been some very positive developments. And you take a step back and look at progress in Iraq, you say, well, it's amazing -- constitutional democracy in the heart of the Middle East, which is a remarkable development in itself.
I think one of the -- obviously, the real problem we face is the sectarian violence that needs to be dealt with. So part of my policy review is how do we deal with that in a way that then enables the Iraqi people to live in a more secure society so that the government can prove its worth to the people -- saying, we can help you. And one of the main functions of government is to provide security for its people. Our job is to help the Iraqis provide that security. And I'll come forward with a plan that will enable us to achieve that objective.
There's other threats, by the way. It's a multiple-front war, if you really think about it. You got Shia discord in the south; you've got Sunni attacks, much of that -- many of them are caused by al-Qaeda. A lot of them, former Baathists and regimists who are angry that Saddam is no longer in power, and they are a source of conflict in al-Anbar province. And we've got a very robust effort -- I said the other day something that, I guess, people didn't pay that much attention to -- but for October and November and the first week of December, our actions on the ground have -- as a result of action on the ground, we killed or captured nearly 5,900 people. My point in making that point is our troops and coalition troops are on the offense in a lot of areas.
And then the third area of conflict, the one that gets a lot of attention, as it should, is the sectarian violence taking place in Baghdad. And I fully understand that we've got to help the Iraqis deal with that. So my thinking is -- and a lot of our strategy sessions revolve around how best to deal with this problem, and how best to help the Iraqis deal with it. And I've got some more work to do, and I'll come forth at the appropriate time and explain the way forward to the country.
Thanks for posting that
That's what it was. I know, weird huh. The quality of the sound wasn't great and the source on the screen was Washington Post. So what else are we to assume but that it was the reporter's tape recording.
Nothing like playing Whack-A-Presstitute in the morning.
I don't doubt that
I just found it odd they would play a reporters taped notes/interview
They normally don't do that
Figured there would be a live thread here somewhere! Thanks kristinn!
A pre X-Mas announcement for the final 20k push through the Mahidis in Baghdad?
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