Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
December 21, 2006
Pg. 18
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — President Bush warned Americans on Wednesday that the war in Iraq would require “difficult choices and additional sacrifices” in the coming year, but he firmly rejected the notion that the war could not be won and vowed that the United States would not be “run out of the Middle East” by extremists and radicals.
Mr. Bush, appearing somber and at times reflective during his traditional year-end news conference, conceded that 2006, which began on a note of optimism as nearly 12 million Iraqis voted in free elections, turned into “a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people.” He cited “unspeakable sectarian violence,” calling it “one aspect of this war that has not gone right.”
But after a month in which he has been under pressure to change course in Iraq — from Democrats who want a gradual withdrawal of troops and from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report implied that he should reframe his goals away from democracy toward mere stability — the president showed no indication that he was inclined to change goals or pull out of Iraq.
“Victory in Iraq is achievable,” Mr. Bush said, addressing reporters in the ornate Indian Treaty Room across the street from the White House, in a historic office building once used by the Navy. He added, “Our goal remains a free and democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.”
Mr. Bush also used the news conference to confirm his plans, disclosed Tuesday in an interview with The Washington Post, to propose an increase in the permanent size of both the Army and the Marines. He called the global campaign against terrorism “the calling of our generation,” and he said the military needed to be beefed up to fight it.
“I want the enemy to understand that this is a tough task, but they can’t run us out of the Middle East, that they can’t intimidate America,” Mr. Bush said.
But the president gave little hint of what he would do in Iraq. Though he has been considering proposals to send additional troops to Baghdad in the short term, Mr. Bush said he was still listening to military commanders — some of whom are said to be skeptical of a short-term increase — and had not yet made up his mind. He is expected to outline his Iraq strategy after the first of the year.
As Mr. Bush contemplates that new strategy, some advisers have been urging him to diminish public expectations by steering clear of talk about victory and of Iraq as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Some said his language on Wednesday was not helpful.
“Victory is not a good word to use,” said Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired general who has been advising the administration and has said he believes that there is still time for Mr. Bush to turn around the situation in Iraq. “It implies that there is a military outcome in the short term that ends violence, and that’s not going to happen.”
Instead, the president has altered his language in another way. In the interview with The Post, he dropped his previous assertion — made before the November elections — that “we are winning” in favor of the murkier idea that the United States was neither winning nor losing. On Wednesday, he tried to explain.
“The first comment was done in this spirit: I believe that we’re going to win,” the president said, adding, “My comments yesterday reflected the fact that we’re not succeeding nearly as fast as I wanted, when I said it at the time, and that the conditions are tough in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad.”
With Republicans having lost control of Congress after an election that was widely viewed as a referendum on the war, and polls showing public support for the war at record lows, Mr. Bush is caught in the difficult spot of coming up with a policy that will satisfy the public and Democrats, while also producing substantive change.
But his comments on Wednesday left Democrats cold.
The incoming speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, complained that the president gave no indication “that he is willing to make the changes needed to reverse the disastrous situation in Iraq.”
A former adviser to the Democratic presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said the president owed an apology to Mr. Kerry, who proposed increasing the size of the military, only to be ridiculed by Republicans. “I think you could say that so far, in this re-evaluation process, he is only dressing up ‘Stay the course,’ ” said the adviser, Richard C. Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations.
Some Republicans have said that until Mr. Bush gets the situation in Iraq under control, he will be unable to move forward with his domestic agenda on Capitol Hill. But the president expressed optimism on Wednesday that he could work with Democrats in 2007 — perhaps to the chagrin of some in his own party, who fear the president will cut them loose to join with the opposition on issues like Social Security, immigration and energy independence.
“You know, there’s a lot of attitude here that says, ‘Well, you lost the Congress, therefore you’re not going to get anything done,’ ” Mr. Bush said. “Quite the contrary. I have an interest to get things done, and the Democrats have an interest to get something done.”
Mr. Bush is not one for introspection, and he expressed little sense on Wednesday that he regretted his decisions in Iraq, other than to say, “The most painful aspect of my presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives.”
Still, with just two years left in his administration, the president hinted that he was thinking about his legacy — even as he denied that it was foremost on his mind.
“Look, everybody’s trying to write the history of this administration even before it’s over,” Mr. Bush said. “I’m reading about George Washington still. My attitude is, if they’re still analyzing No. 1, 43 ought not to worry about it, and just do what he thinks is right, make the tough choices necessary.”
December 21, 2006
Pg. 18
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — President Bush warned Americans on Wednesday that the war in Iraq would require “difficult choices and additional sacrifices” in the coming year, but he firmly rejected the notion that the war could not be won and vowed that the United States would not be “run out of the Middle East” by extremists and radicals.
Mr. Bush, appearing somber and at times reflective during his traditional year-end news conference, conceded that 2006, which began on a note of optimism as nearly 12 million Iraqis voted in free elections, turned into “a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people.” He cited “unspeakable sectarian violence,” calling it “one aspect of this war that has not gone right.”
But after a month in which he has been under pressure to change course in Iraq — from Democrats who want a gradual withdrawal of troops and from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report implied that he should reframe his goals away from democracy toward mere stability — the president showed no indication that he was inclined to change goals or pull out of Iraq.
“Victory in Iraq is achievable,” Mr. Bush said, addressing reporters in the ornate Indian Treaty Room across the street from the White House, in a historic office building once used by the Navy. He added, “Our goal remains a free and democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.”
Mr. Bush also used the news conference to confirm his plans, disclosed Tuesday in an interview with The Washington Post, to propose an increase in the permanent size of both the Army and the Marines. He called the global campaign against terrorism “the calling of our generation,” and he said the military needed to be beefed up to fight it.
“I want the enemy to understand that this is a tough task, but they can’t run us out of the Middle East, that they can’t intimidate America,” Mr. Bush said.
But the president gave little hint of what he would do in Iraq. Though he has been considering proposals to send additional troops to Baghdad in the short term, Mr. Bush said he was still listening to military commanders — some of whom are said to be skeptical of a short-term increase — and had not yet made up his mind. He is expected to outline his Iraq strategy after the first of the year.
As Mr. Bush contemplates that new strategy, some advisers have been urging him to diminish public expectations by steering clear of talk about victory and of Iraq as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Some said his language on Wednesday was not helpful.
“Victory is not a good word to use,” said Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired general who has been advising the administration and has said he believes that there is still time for Mr. Bush to turn around the situation in Iraq. “It implies that there is a military outcome in the short term that ends violence, and that’s not going to happen.”
Instead, the president has altered his language in another way. In the interview with The Post, he dropped his previous assertion — made before the November elections — that “we are winning” in favor of the murkier idea that the United States was neither winning nor losing. On Wednesday, he tried to explain.
“The first comment was done in this spirit: I believe that we’re going to win,” the president said, adding, “My comments yesterday reflected the fact that we’re not succeeding nearly as fast as I wanted, when I said it at the time, and that the conditions are tough in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad.”
With Republicans having lost control of Congress after an election that was widely viewed as a referendum on the war, and polls showing public support for the war at record lows, Mr. Bush is caught in the difficult spot of coming up with a policy that will satisfy the public and Democrats, while also producing substantive change.
But his comments on Wednesday left Democrats cold.
The incoming speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, complained that the president gave no indication “that he is willing to make the changes needed to reverse the disastrous situation in Iraq.”
A former adviser to the Democratic presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said the president owed an apology to Mr. Kerry, who proposed increasing the size of the military, only to be ridiculed by Republicans. “I think you could say that so far, in this re-evaluation process, he is only dressing up ‘Stay the course,’ ” said the adviser, Richard C. Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations.
Some Republicans have said that until Mr. Bush gets the situation in Iraq under control, he will be unable to move forward with his domestic agenda on Capitol Hill. But the president expressed optimism on Wednesday that he could work with Democrats in 2007 — perhaps to the chagrin of some in his own party, who fear the president will cut them loose to join with the opposition on issues like Social Security, immigration and energy independence.
“You know, there’s a lot of attitude here that says, ‘Well, you lost the Congress, therefore you’re not going to get anything done,’ ” Mr. Bush said. “Quite the contrary. I have an interest to get things done, and the Democrats have an interest to get something done.”
Mr. Bush is not one for introspection, and he expressed little sense on Wednesday that he regretted his decisions in Iraq, other than to say, “The most painful aspect of my presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives.”
Still, with just two years left in his administration, the president hinted that he was thinking about his legacy — even as he denied that it was foremost on his mind.
“Look, everybody’s trying to write the history of this administration even before it’s over,” Mr. Bush said. “I’m reading about George Washington still. My attitude is, if they’re still analyzing No. 1, 43 ought not to worry about it, and just do what he thinks is right, make the tough choices necessary.”
