[Vision2020] Bush Says He Won't Be Swayed To Withdraw

[Tony]

For those of us who prefer to deny the role of liberal bias in the news, our 
dear friend Tom has provided a classic example from the A.P.  The article 
quoted President Bush prefaced with " Bush, dodging a direct answer..." 
This is grossly unprofessional conduct for a journalist when not writing on 
the opinion page.  A direct quote, free of smart ass interpretation, is the 
ONLY conduct a respectable reporter would employ.  Unfortunately the A.P. is 
known for hiring biased little lapdogs.

Professional journalists have a responsibility to their readers not to 
inject their personal interpretation into the news.  Those who claim to 
value fairness and justice would do well to hold them to account for their 
refusal to do so.

Jingle bells, jingle bells........  ah hell, you know the rest.        -T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 4:00 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Bush Says He Won't Be Swayed To Withdraw


> >From the today's (November 28, 2006) Roundup edition of the Army times -
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bush says he won't be swayed to withdraw
> Iraq violence is not civil war, he adds
>
> The Associated Press
>
> RIGA, Latvia - President Bush, under pressure to change direction in Iraq,
> said Tuesday he will not be persuaded by any calls to withdraw American
> troops before the country is stabilized.
>
> "There's one thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to pull our troops 
> off
> the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said in a speech 
> setting
> the stage for high-stakes meetings with the Iraqi prime minister later 
> this
> week. "We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our
> grandchildren."
>
> Bush added that the sectarian violence rocking Iraq is part of an al-Qaida
> plot to goad Iraqi factions into repeated attacks and counterattacks.
>
> "There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion
> because of the attacks by al-Qaida causing people to seek reprisal," he
> said.
>
> Bush, who travels to Jordan later in the week for a summit with Iraqi 
> Prime
> Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the latest cycle of violence does not
> represent a new era in Iraq. The country is reeling from the deadliest 
> week
> of sectarian fighting since the war began in March 2003.
>
> "We've been in this phase for a while," Bush said.
>
> The president dated the current spike in violence to the Feb. 22 bombing 
> of
> a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, which triggered reprisal attacks 
> between
> Shiites and Sunnis and raised fears of civil war.
>
> Reviews of how to alter the Iraq strategy are underway within the
> administration, even as a bipartisan panel, led by former Secretary of 
> State
> James Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., is completing the
> recommendations it is expected to present to Bush next month.
>
> Bush said he will ask al-Maliki to explain his plan for quelling the
> violence.
>
> "The Maliki government is going to have to deal with that violence and we
> want to help them do so," the president said. "It's in our interest that 
> we
> succeed."
>
> Directly seeking help from Iran and Syria with Iraq, as part of new,
> aggressive diplomacy throughout the region, is expected to be among the
> recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton group.
>
> But Bush continued to express his administration's reluctance to talk with
> two nations it regards as pariah states working to destabilize the Middle
> East.
>
> Iran, the top U.S. rival in the region, has reached out to Iraq and Syria 
> in
> recent days - an attempt viewed as a bid to assert its role as a 
> powerbroker
> in Iraq.
>
> Bush said Iraq is a sovereign nation, free to meet with its neighbors.
>
> "If that's what they think they ought to do, that's fine," he said. "One
> thing Iraq would like to see is for the Iranians to leave them alone."
>
> The president added that the U.S. will only deal with Iran when they 
> suspend
> their program of enriching uranium, which could be used in a nuclear 
> weapon
> arsenal.
>
> "The Iranians and the Syrians should help - not destabilize - this young
> democracy," he said.
>
> U.S. officials have previously accused Iran of military interference in
> Iraq.
>
> On Iraq, Jordan's King Abdullah, who is hosting al-Maliki's meeting with
> Bush, has warned that unless bold steps are taken urgently, the new year
> could dawn with three civil wars in the Middle East - with one in Iraq 
> added
> to those in Lebanon and between the Palestinians and Israelis.
>
> But Bush, dodging a direct answer of whether civil war exists or not, tied
> the three conflicts together in a different way. He said that recent 
> strife
> in Lebanon and the heated up Israeli-Palestinian dispute are, like Iraq, 
> the
> result of extremists trying to choke off democratic progress.
>
> "When you see a young democracy beginning to emerge in the Middle East, 
> the
> extremists try to defeat its emergence," Bush said. "Extremists attack
> because they can't stand the thought of a democracy. And the same thing is
> happening in Iraq."
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> ********************************************
>
> "In America, anybody can become president.
> That's one of the risks you take . . ."
>
> - Adlai Stevenson
>
> ********************************************
>
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