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

[Art Deco]

Pat Writes of GWB:

"Thank God! Someone who takes a stand and will not be swayed by polls."

Perhaps, she should have written:

"Thank God! Someone who takes a stand and will not be swayed by polls and 
certainly not by very strong evidence that success as currently defined by 
his administration is highly improbable."

W.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Bush Says He Won't Be Swayed To Withdraw


> Thank God! Someone who takes a stand and will not be swayed by polls.
>
>
>
> ----- 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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