Fending Off a Deadline: Bush Seeks Time on Iraq
News Analysis
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 12 — President Bush’s Iraq strategy now boils down to this: He is trying to buy time for a surge that is living on borrowed time.
At Thursday’s news conference, Mr. Bush insisted — as he has for much of the four-year-long war — that drawing down troops was his ultimate goal, one he wants to accomplish while still in office.
But Mr. Bush steadfastly rejected the advice of those who have urged him to hint at a timeline for a withdrawal, concluding that even the whiff of a deadline would embolden Republican rebels to join Democrats in setting a concrete schedule for moving troops out of the worst parts of Baghdad and other cities.
Mr. Bush appears all but certain now to succeed in getting Congress to stand down until Sept. 15, when a fuller report on political and security progress in Iraq is due. Two weeks ago, it was unclear whether he could succeed even in getting that time. But in the past few weeks, many Republicans have also said publicly and privately that after that date, their patience with the president’s strategy will expire.
Anticipating that moment, even some of Mr. Bush’s aides acknowledge that the increase in American forces that the president so ardently defended Thursday was already in its final phases. From the White House to the Pentagon to the military headquarters in Iraq, the focus of behind-the-scenes planning is already on what follows — a “post-surge” mission for the American military that Mr. Bush only alluded to on Thursday.
(Continued here.)
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 12 — President Bush’s Iraq strategy now boils down to this: He is trying to buy time for a surge that is living on borrowed time.
At Thursday’s news conference, Mr. Bush insisted — as he has for much of the four-year-long war — that drawing down troops was his ultimate goal, one he wants to accomplish while still in office.
But Mr. Bush steadfastly rejected the advice of those who have urged him to hint at a timeline for a withdrawal, concluding that even the whiff of a deadline would embolden Republican rebels to join Democrats in setting a concrete schedule for moving troops out of the worst parts of Baghdad and other cities.
Mr. Bush appears all but certain now to succeed in getting Congress to stand down until Sept. 15, when a fuller report on political and security progress in Iraq is due. Two weeks ago, it was unclear whether he could succeed even in getting that time. But in the past few weeks, many Republicans have also said publicly and privately that after that date, their patience with the president’s strategy will expire.
Anticipating that moment, even some of Mr. Bush’s aides acknowledge that the increase in American forces that the president so ardently defended Thursday was already in its final phases. From the White House to the Pentagon to the military headquarters in Iraq, the focus of behind-the-scenes planning is already on what follows — a “post-surge” mission for the American military that Mr. Bush only alluded to on Thursday.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home