July 10, 2007
Bush Stands Firm On Iraq Despite Political Weakness
UPDATED.
In remarks delivered to a pre-selected audience at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, President Bush sought to repel a storm of attacks on his Iraq war policy.
"I'm doing my best to educate people about the perils of the world in which we live, and that we have an active strategy to deal with it," Bush said, after asking the audience to consider him the "explainer in chief."
Referring to al-Qaida in Iraq, Bush said, "They believe as strongly in their ideology as I believe in ours. They will kill a Muslim, a child, or a woman at a moment's notice to achieve their objectives."
The town hall meeting comes during a particularly intense week in Washington's debate on the Iraq war. The president has a dwindling number of alliances on the Hill when it comes to his insistence that a new counterinsurgency strategy be allowed to play out this summer.
Bush repeatedly emphasized that the "surge" strategy was not his invention, but rather that of the top U.S. commander on the ground, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus. After realizing that the initial postwar operations had been counterproductive, Bush said, Petraeus advised him "to change the mission to provide security for the people of the capital city of Iraq as well as Anbar province."
Acknowledging the Chinese wall building up between him and the majority of the American public, Bush said, "I believe it's in this nation's interest to give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations. Congress ought to wait for General Petraeus to come back and give us his assessment of the strategy he's put in place."
Petraeus and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, are due before Congress by Sept. 15 to deliver their assessment of the new counterinsurgency strategy, which is focused on isolating al-Qaida and other insurgent elements to give Iraqis breathing room. The idea being that a stronger security force and government will better enable the Iraqi people to fend off attacks in the future, at which time the U.S. military can begin drawing down its troop numbers.
But with violence and death counts on the rise, on top of news that the Iraqi government is unlikely to meet any of the benchmarks Bush laid out earlier this year, a lonely few Americans still believe the U.S. can successfully help stabilize Iraq. Nonetheless, Bush's resolve appeared unshaken.
Again invoking the example of Japan, an enemy-turned-friend following World War II, he added, "I've got great faith in the power of liberty to transform the world [for] the sake of peace. The fundamental question for our country is, will we keep the faith?"
While the deafening drumbeat for withdrawal hasn't seemed to nudge Bush's position on the war, the emphasis on Petraeus' role is fairly new. The public's expressed support for the military remains high. If effective, transferring responsibility for the counterinsurgency plan to Petraeus could blunt some of the public's impatience.
Back on the Hill, Sen. Lindsey Graham also invoked Petraeus, a highly respected counterinsurgency expert who easily won confirmation in January.
"In the short term, the best thing we can do is stand behind General Petraeus," Graham said, surrounded by other GOP Senate leaders at a press gaggle. "The demise of al-Qaida is possible and will occur if we keep the pressure on."
Graham was fresh off a visit to Iraq last week. Fellow Republican John McCain, who was also on that trip, decried Democrats' attempts to curtail some of Bush's authority on the war.
"I think the Webb amendment is an encroachment of the constitutional rights of the president of the United States and presidential authority," McCain said, referring to a proposal from Virginia Democrat Jim Webb that would give troops as much time at home as they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon announced in April that deployments would be extended to 15 months, with just a year at home in between.
Of other Democratic amendments to be tested on the Senate floor this week, McCain groused, "I've seen this movie before. I regret we have to do this on the authorization bill for the nation's defense."
In a separate press conference outside the Senate chambers, Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed confident the Levin-Reed amendment, which would force Bush to begin withdrawing troops in four months and would end the war by April 30 of next year, would attract enough votes to withstand a presidential veto.
"As I've said before, this is untoward. This Republican minority is so envious of the elections last November, so everything we bring out they obstruct," Reid said. "We're going to make sure the defense authorization bill passes."
Last spring, congressional Democrats pitted themselves against Bush by attaching a withdrawal timetable to a defense authorization bill, only to blink when it became clear that they didn't have enough votes to withstand a presidential veto. With more Republican defections on the war since then, Democrats are hoping to win more support for a timetable. But few GOP war critics are willing to force Bush's hand on the war. Yesterday, Maine's Olympia Snowe became just the third Republican to express support for a deadline.
The Democratic amendments to the authorization bill have already hit a snag. Reid was unable to secure an up-or-down vote on the floor, requiring each to garner at least 60 yeas for passage. First up is Webb's amendment, which is scheduled for a cloture vote tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
It seems last spring's authorization battle is playing out again, but this time around the tone is somewhat different. Republicans are largely in agreement with Democrats about how the war is going, and just seem at odds on how to bring it to an end. The senators who visited Iraq last week gave a grim report on political progress there.
"The central dysfunction of the Iraqi government is real," Graham said. "I am in many ways more depressed about the political reconciliation in the short term."
Still, Graham seemed to beg Democrats to back off on their war agenda until the fall.
"Wait until September. Don't undercut [Petraeus]. Don't be the cavalry for al-Qaida. Don't pull the rug out from under the troops who are finally making progress," he pleaded.
(White House photo by Eric Draper)
Posted at 6:40 PM
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Al-Qaida, Bush Administration, David Petraeus, Iraq, Middle East, Military, President Bush, Terrorism
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