Bush: General Petraeus "Will Have All The Time He Needs"

AP Reports:

President Bush on Thursday ordered an indefinite halt in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after July, embracing the key recommendations of his top war commander. Bush said Gen. David Petraeus will "have all the time he needs" to consider when more American forces could return home.

Bush's decisions virtually guarantee a major U.S. presence in Iraq throughout his term in office in January, when a new president takes office.

The New York Times includes more excerpts from the President's speech, including his call for American's to sacrifice "for some time to come."

"It is clear that we're on the right track," the president said. That track, he said, leads to a self-sufficient and free Iraq, where those who foment violence will find themselves increasingly unwelcome, and indeed on the run from Iraqi military and security forces.

Mr. Bush said that big challenges must be surmounted before Iraq is truly free and secure, and that more sacrifices will be demanded of Americans "for some time to come." But increasingly, the president asserted, the United States military will be able to shift to a training and support role.

The Washington Post furthers the point that Bush is essentially leaving the fate of 140,000 troops in Iraq in the hands of the next President.

The bottom line seems to be that after pulling out the extra forces Bush sent last year, the United States will keep about 140,000 troops in Iraq at least through the November presidential election. In the short term, the debate in Washington instead will focus more intently on trade-offs at home, including the strain on the armed forces and the Treasury.

Comments

[wordvarc]

w lowered the bar. He's the worst ever.

Let's recap. w invaded illegally and unjustly because of non-existent WMD's; reframed his boner as a 'regime change; kangaroo courted and killed Sunni Sadaam, supplied and bolstered the Shiites; created a civil war; is paying and supplying the the Sunni troops that fought w's invasion, and is now installing 'democracy and a police state by using US bombs and the Sunnis to kill Shiites. Now, let's talk about the Kurds and Turkey...then we'll mention Iran...then Syria... then Israel and Palastine .......w's narcissistic rovian twisted arrogance is simply insane...yet ask him..his real enemies are US citizen "liberals" and democrats.

w follows the "trickle down" mantra by recent RNC presidents giving us the Saving and Loan fiasco, Energy deregulation, Home land Security, and Unjust war. The so called "tax and spend democrats" have never spent taxpayer dollars and expanded government like w and previous RNC self proclaimed "risk takers" and wanabe "benevolent dictators." How many more of these RNC presidents will claim they are Lincoln, preach small government and conservativism but really pander to the rich, increasingly burden the poor and middle class, start wars and deregulate whole sectors of the economy for short term financial gain of cronies (even bailing them out with taxpayer dollars) at the expense of working people. The RNC is crucifying democracy and the United States of America. The Republican party has succumbed to the greedy arrogant idiots Eisenhower warned us about...

[2008thankyou]

Yep Americans are going to have to make more sacrifices under his rule. But not a damn one of them will be a Bush, Cheney or friends.

[nivek]

Once upon a time in America we hung traitors. Scorned and exposed war profiteers. Turned out and shunned corrupt politicians. Hounded scoundrels and cheats. Now we give them medals and appointments to plum posts and corporate boards.

[Axolotl]

Bush lied. People died.

[lornejl]

lornejl to donkey, I don't think you're an idiot or a dolphin.

[pennyfortheguy]

Pull everyone out of Iraq. Then send those three hapless dudes from "Credit Report. Com" (baby) in there. Merriment ensues.

[NelsonR]

Why can't the Neo Con Republicans fail to see the solution to the Iraq war. Take the thirty percent who approve of this war and win it for us. I can envision Rush, Hannity, Dick face Cheney, Rove and their ilk being shipped out. Just joking, we all know the chicken hawks are cowards at heart like those just mentioned. Easier to send others to do your fighting while acquiring money.
Dick faced Cheney had five deferments to avoid Vietnam while he frolicked in bed with his elitist wife and 58,000 Americans died. Bush we all know got lost in the National Guard, Lieberman avoided the draft. Could go on but the point should have been understood. Republican Neo Cons should be looked upon as cowardly money grubbers who are not patriots but the Benedict Arnolds cowering in a corner.

[lornejl]

It is far too dangerous to pull out of Iraq, what is wrong with that logic ?

[HumeSkeptic]

It is even more dangerous to stay - both in terms of loss of life, potential for further escalation beyond Iraq's border, and economic ruin for us in the U.S.
If done right, pulling out is the least dangerous way of ending the quagmire.

[HumeSkeptic]

And, of course, you already knew that.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Obviously it's BS, just like everything this administration has fed America.

[Nochnoi]

I am so tired of BS everyday..... Can't we have something different... like Sweet Truthiness, or maybe Spicy Honesty, followed by a cool drink of Peace.....

[browndog2]

Nothing. Just the logic part. Doesn't sit well with lefties. Fantasize...now everything's just fine.

[mimsnpips]

"Doesn't sit well with lefties." is quite the generalization. Everything is not fine in Iraq. It's a fiscal, logistical swamp of loss that has no simple way out. I have one specific attm and that is: if the oil starts flowing as predicted we better be first in line, get a major discount, with no cap on consumption. Even this may be a fantasy.

[BlueStateMan]

Please enlighten all of us "lefties" with the "logic part".

One, single proviso......

NO conjecture....

NO talking points......

NO bumper sticker slogans.....

[SupremeIdiot]

Tell me what is going to change if we're in Iraq or we are out of Iraq?

Tell me how staying and wiping the Iraqi governements butt every time they screw up is helping them?

Tell me how we can possibly continue to pay for this boondoggle?

Tell me what the plan is then for staying?

Give me something other than "bad things will happen if we stay".

[lornejl]

I have watched this calamity for 7 years, no on can convince me that high tailing it out of Iraq at warp speed isn't a good thing.

[pennyfortheguy]

Pull out half-way then ram it back in. Works every time.

[lornejl]

I'm not laughing, I'm not laughing....the hell I'm not, bwahahahahaah !

[researcher]

ok america blame bush dont look into a mirror. if we support an industrial military complex like no other in the world then we have our iraqs and vietnams.

wars are too profitable to not have them.

most americans are imperialists and many are war mongers.

only a complete tanking of our economic system will defeat american imperialism and war mongering.

had to happen capitalism especially degregulated capitalism has to self destruct. goes against every spiritual law i know of. not religious law they are man made.

this is why the evangels are the worst of the war mongers not due to their understandinf of spiritual laws but their following man made religious laws.

thousands killed in their illegal wars means nothing to these people but one gay getting married they rant and rave the end it near.

i suspect evangels and conservatives are new souls and lack understanding of such things as compassion and love for others.

on the surface they appear every loving and giving but look deep and their beliefs are judgmental and their actions are self rightous.

[browndog2]

I reject everything you said outright. Look deep, and see how polite I'm being.

[BlueStateMan]

One doesn't have to look "deep" to be able to see right through you.... if you were any more transparent, you'd be invisible.

That said....

Tell us WHY you reject researchers post.

Is it blind faith?

[pennyfortheguy]

What is it with Texas and crazy-assed 'compounds'? Have any of them ever removed a single wart?

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

No, but they've bred plenty.

[shockmagog]

I like it.

Bush's fake death ranch is Compound W.

[SupremeIdiot]

You sure it's not Preparation-H?

[Nochnoi]

Heh... no doubt...

[SupremeIdiot]

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2007/08/iraq_withdrawal_logistics/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.withdraw15jul15,0,4914397.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Troop withdrawal logistics.

[condew]

In Bush world, the more honorable you are, the more you'll be hurt; and in the hurt department, our military and their families will hurt worst of all.

The honorable Americans who just want honest pay for honest work. The good jobs get shipped overseas, the lousy ones given to illegals.

The Americans who wanted the American dream of owning a home, they'll lose the home, and wreck their credit so they can't try again; or be stuck in a house, paying on a mortgage that is twice its value.

Those Americans saving for retirement, he's primed the pump in every way possible for major inflation that will wipe them out. He tried and failed to put Social Security into the stock market that is tanking. He made the Medicare problem worse. Clearly it's a scorched earth policy for seniors.

On the other hand, Bush world has been and continues to be great for war profiteers, mercinaries, and dishonest deal makers of all stripes.

[JoJoKewl]

A Meat Beetle See Profile I'm a Fan of A Meat Beetle
JoJo:

The next president will almost certainly appoint at least one Supreme Court justice. Is letting McCain "pay the price for Dubyas' War" so important to you that you would doom this country to several decades of a Taliban-style Supreme Court?

No, McCain must be kept out of the White House.

I certainly intend to vote Dem in November. But if McBomb wins he should be the last Repub POTUS for a long, long time. I think the Dems have killed themselves again, but I don't intend to jump off a bridge because of it.

[GerryS]

so where are you moving??

[A Meat Beetle]

JoJo:

"I think the Dems have killed themselves again..."

Yeah, that circular firing squad thing.

[browndog2]

Try getting the barrell off your foot thing.

[JoJoKewl]

Wanna know the real reason they're after al Sadr and the Mahdis now??? The Mahdis want to nationlize the Iraqi oil industry. That means no deals with Texass billionaires. The Mahdis are mostly poor Shiites and they want Iraqi oil profits to go to Iraqis instead of Texans. That doesn't mean al Sadr is a a good guy. They murdered lots of Sunni in Baghdad. But the issue is oil - it always is.

[SupremeIdiot]

I say let 'em fight it out while we sit on the sidelines and watch.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

yep, not our problem.

[lornejl]

Like we are watching Darfur, fun stuff.

[GerryS]

screw the oil maggots

[CHARLESTHETENTH]

Same old tune. When is this congress going to come to grips with the failed situation in Iraq and do something meaningful to end this tragedy? When are the American people going to demand more accountability from this administration? Most Americans seem to be totally disconnected from this War and the diversity that help forge this country of ours and stimulated patriotism seems to have lost its way. We are still a diverse nation but more fragmented than ever before. So many conflicting accounts on the Iraq War as to make it so confusing that we don't know who to believe anymore. Add to that the many pressing domestic issues thus taking us further away from the reality of Iraq. Our peak period in History has passed..as a people we are becoming more isolated and we don't care to know what is going on in the rest of the World. History has shown that as much as we try we just can't get it right.

[HumeSkeptic]

There is a lot of anger expressed against Pelosi and Reid for not stopping war funding. It is justified. I also was angry. The time to do it was right after the 2006 elections. But, accompanying that cutting of funding had to be an initiative to replace our military action with a coordinated international diplomatic initiative. Without it, Iraq situation could potentially become worse, at least for Iraqis.

The expectation that either Obama or Hillary can pull out of Iraq immediately after taking office is unrealistic for the same reasons. First, they would have to have a major diplomatic initiative started. And that would talk some time.

The difference is not so much what each would do in Iraq. The difference is how each would handle potential future conflicts, such as Iran.

On the one hand, we have Hillary, who has consistently sided with the NeoCons. Hillary supports the classic NeoCon approach of dividing the world up into good and evil, and refusing to negotiate with the evil without pre-conditions.

Obama's approach of talking to world leaders without pre-conditions is an approach that has always served us well. That is how you avoid major conflicts and war.

There is no crystal ball. All one can go by is how each views the world and how each would approach international relations so as to minimize the very likelihood of a crisis. In the case of Hillary, we also have her record of consistently siding with the NeoCons.

[Nochnoi]

I think I would much prefer the position of talking and negotiations, especially with those considered our "enemies".... It is so stupid to be unwilling to do so... it just shows a certain amount of ego influenced stubbornness, much like we see in W everyday... so childish.... and excessively pointless....