Friday, July 13, 2007

Kamikaze

"In a session with about ten conservative journalists Friday afternoon, a confident and determined president made it clear that he is going to see the surge through, and will rely on General David Petraeus’s advice on how to proceed come September, regardless of the political climate in Washington." (National Review)

It's always hard to tell whether a politician is telling the truth or playing to his current audience, but for what it's worth, here's the rest of Rich Lowry's story.



The president made his intentions clear Friday afternoon. He’s not going to abandon the surge, despite all the talk of his administration being willing to move to the Iraq Study Group model of the Iraq war. He views “this period as fundamental for deciding whether or not this nation is going to be secure throughout a lot of the 21st century. And therefore when it comes to the war in Iraq, as you know, I made a decision not to leave but to put more in, and I will support our troops and support Gen. Petraeus, his plan.”

Read the whole thing. The big question is whether the President has any choice, and given the narrow margin in numbers the Democrats actually have in both houses a lot will depend on whether the Republican Party agrees with Bush. But apart from what they believe in principle, many Republicans are doubtlessly weighting the effect their public stance has upon their electoral prospects.

Riehl's World (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds) thinks that Republican Senators may be misjudging the public's mood on Iraq as they misjudged the public on immigration. Is he right? Time will tell.

Update

BG Kevin Bergner describes the progress to date against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

2 Comments:

Blogger John Aristides said...

What are our options?

Elbridge Colby makes the argument for deterrence here.

'Tis worth reading, even though it's wrong.

7/13/2007 06:27:00 PM  
Blogger Tarnsman said...

"The only way we lose this is if we leave." President Bush in 2005.

"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. ......we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. And then we will leave — and we will leave behind a free Iraq." President Bush on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln - the infamous Mission Accomplish speech, words he never uttered.
Instead he said, "Our mission continues. Al-Qaida is wounded, not destroyed....The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory..."

Seems to me that the President has been unwavering and victory has remained his goal. He has always said this would be long and hard.
He has even said that the effort would outlast his Administration. Problem is no wanted to hear that a long and difficult task was ahead.

What are our options? Just two:

Stay and fight. And win.

or

Cut and Run. And lose.

I vote to win.

7/13/2007 10:43:00 PM  

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