Bush Says US Must Stay in Iraq for Long Haul - Political Discussion

Home | Community | Message Board

You are not signed in.
New Account

Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop:

Bulk Cannabis Seeds

North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies

Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

Jump to first unread post

Pages: 1 | 2 | Next > [ show all ]

Zahid
Stranger

Registered: 01/21/02
Posts: 4,779
Last seen: 19 years, 6 months

Bush Says US Must Stay in Iraq for Long Haul

#2065727 - 11/02/03 05:26 PM (20 years, 5 months ago)

US must stay for long haul, says Bush

ALEX MASSIE IN WASHINGTON - Sun 2 Nov 2003

GEORGE W Bush yesterday vowed to stand firm on Iraq and told America leaving the country prematurely would only strengthen "the terrorists" he blamed for recent deadly attacks on US soldiers.

As two more personnel were killed by a roadside bomb blast yesterday in the northern city of Mosul, the US president sought to counter the rising number of critics who believe the reconstruction of Iraq is failing.

He promised to defeat those responsible for strikes which have now killed more soldiers than fell during the war itself in what is now his fifth consecutive weekly radio address which has touched on Iraq.

"The United States will complete our work in Iraq," Bush said. "Leaving Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the danger to America."

Six months after he declared an end to "major combat" in Iraq, Bush is under increasing pressure going into next year?s election from the mounting toll of American dead.

One US soldier and an Iraqi policeman were killed in attacks in Iraq on Friday and several governments have warned of terror strikes in Baghdad this weekend after suicide bombings last week killed at least 35 people.

The United Nations, victim of a devastating suicide bombing in August, also began pulling its remaining foreign staff out of Iraq and moving them to Cyprus yesterday following the latest attacks in which the Red Cross was targeted.

But a defiant Bush said America would not be shaken by "terrorists" and is battling those he said were responsible for carrying out the strikes - foreigners and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein loyalists.

"We are taking this fight to the enemy, mounting raids, seizing weapons and funds and bringing killers to justice," he said.

Bush also said the US was training more Iraqis to defend their country: "We are accelerating our efforts to train and field a new Iraqi army and more civil defence forces." He added that helping to transform Iraq into a centre of progress and peace "will make America safer".

With Iraq high on the campaign agenda as Bush seeks re-election next year, his administration has also handed over some of the material demanded by a Senate panel reviewing intelligence that triggered the war to oust Saddam.

Polls show that the American electorate is increasingly concerned and doubtful that the administration?s Iraq policy is either correct or sustainable.

The president?s case has not been made any simpler by his own claim, made during a meeting with Paul Bremer, the top US civilian administrator in Iraq, that "the more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react". That claim - that the US will be able to judge success by how bad the situation gets - has been met with ridicule in Washington.

Despite Bush?s broadcast yesterday, the White House has shifted both its tone and policy in recent days as the prospect of a fully-fledged guerrilla war in the so-called ?Sunni Triangle? around Baghdad is fast becoming a reality.

Senior administration officials have talked up the difficulties and the long-term nature of the Iraqi reconstruction project in a marked reversal of their previous optimism.

The administration?s strategy is to turn as much power and control of security over to newly trained Iraqi police and troops as soon as possible. The Pentagon believes it may have only six months to complete the job, or risk seeing the resistance grow bolder and stronger.

That may not be enough on its own, however. Some analysts believe that the US needs to shift its priorities in Iraq, moving to a fully-fledged counter-insurgency operation in an effort to secure the peace.

"To set up roadblocks after the bomb goes off is not the answer," said Arizona senator John McCain. "We?ve got to get into prevention. We need more troops. We need more marines and intelligence capabilities."

As former general Bill Nash, who fought in the first US war against Iraq, put it: "There?s been a lack of understanding by the civilian folks at the Pentagon that it takes more troops to stabilise a country than to conquer it."

Gary Schmitt, of the Project for A New American Century, said: "The insurgents do not have to win; they simply have to avoid losing. Their goal is not to change the facts on the ground as much as to change American perceptions of the viability of the president?s vision for Iraq."

That thought worries lawmakers from both parties in Washington. Senator Joe Biden, the minority leader on the Senate foreign affairs committee, predicted that "by Christmas, unless there?s a radical change in circumstances, the American people will be wanting, by a measure of 2-1, to bring the troops home". Any such move would, he said, be "disastrous".

The US army has the manual to do the job, however. In the 1930s a group of marine corps officers, drawing on America?s experiences in the Caribbean and elsewhere, put together the ?Small Wars Manual?.

Although 60 years old, it is still instructive. "In small wars no defined battle front exists and the theatre of operations may be the whole length and breadth of the land," it notes, before pointing out that US troops will face "members of native forces [who] will suddenly become innocent peasant workers when it suits their fancy and convenience."

HEARTS AND MINDS

IN AN effort to help diffuse the situation in the ?Sunni Triangle?, tribal elders from Saddam Hussein?s home region have been holding talks with US soldiers, telling them townspeople are against terrorists throwing bombs but also don?t like soldiers putting guns to men?s heads during searches.

The discussion between some 30 tribal leaders clad in traditional white robes and headscarves and American forces marked a renewed effort by coalition forces to win support from the elders in the area.

"Who could imagine that we could sit openly and talk like this, say what we think without threats?" Lt Col Steve Russell said. His 4th Infantry Division troops have been hunting for supporters of Saddam (right) and Fedayeen militants in the area and have come under constant attack from insurgent forces.

Town elder Mahmud Yasin, an arts professor at Tikrit University, said: "I am against terrorists and their attacks, but I am also against US soldiers putting guns to the heads of our men and trampling on our dignity."

--------------------

Extras:

Similar Threads	Poster	Views	Replies	Last post
George Bush In Iraq ( 1 2 3 all )	pattern	3,724	57	12/04/03 06:43 PM by Phred
Senate Defies Bush, Turns Iraq Aid Into Loans	Zahid	721	1	10/17/03 01:19 AM by PsiloKitten
Bush Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' Before Becoming President	Rono	1,881	12	09/29/03 01:00 PM by Rono
Bush?s Iraq War: An Offer You Would Have Refused	Ancalagon	851	10	11/06/04 01:16 PM by The_Red_Crayon
Bush Orders Iraq To Disarm Before Start Of War	Northernsoul	1,127	12	03/18/03 09:34 AM by angryshroom
Bush's Iraq...	cortex	645	3	09/10/03 03:04 PM by lysergic
Leading Democrats Weigh In on Iraq ( 1 2 all )	wingnutx	1,725	33	10/14/03 02:50 PM by silversoul7
Bush's Iraq / Niger uranium letter a fraud	Swami	875	7	04/18/03 11:22 AM by Rono