Bush deflects criticism on Iraq war

Source: Associated Press

President Bush took his critics to task Saturday for using the poor marks the Iraqi government received on a progress report this week as reason to argue that the war is lost.

Bush acknowledged the Iraqis received "unsatisfactory" marks on eight benchmarks, including failure to prepare for local elections or to pass a law to share oil revenues among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. But the president said "satisfactory" grades the Iraqis received in eight other areas — like providing three Iraqi brigades for the military offensive under way and providing $10 billion of their money for reconstruction — were cause for optimism.

"Our strategy is built on the premise that progress on security will pave the way for political progress," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "This report shows that conditions can change, progress can be made, and the fight in Iraq can be won."

He said the last of more than 20,000 additional troops he ordered to Iraq just recently arrived, and U.S. troops deserve more time to carry out the offensive.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070714/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

It's way past time for someone to drag this dumb-ass out of our White House.

70% of us will say so to a pollster, yet the "press" insists on treating his blather like serious policy announcements.

And the spineless congressional democrats cower in fear of doing their job.

Nobody fucking believes it anymore, fer chrissakes! These asswipes have fucked up everything they've touched and they are about to fuck up our constitution.

They must be fired.

gave the Democratic response to Bush's radio address. Friedman served in Afghanistan and Iraq and said it's past time for a transition to diplomatic efforts in Iraq that Democrats have long demanded.

"The fact is, the Iraq war has kept us from devoting assets we need to fight terrorists worldwide — as evidenced by the fact that Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and al-Qaida has been able to rebuild," Friedman said. "We need an effective offensive strategy that takes the fight to our real enemies abroad. And the best way to do that is to get our troops out of the middle of this civil war in Iraq."

I think the choice of wording there is suspicious, at best.

After failing this many benchmarks for so many years, isn't it the law that the soldiers get to choose a better war?

Oh, nevermind, that's Bush's No Child Left Behind. It's getting really hard to keep all of his failed policies apart.

I am really sick of this loser blaming everything on everyone else. Let him wear his flight suit to prison.

Chimpy's excellent little war would be going just swimmingly if all these critics weren't noticing the bodies hitting the ground and all the money spent. Just leave it all to Chimpy, and we'll recoup all the money, he'll bring the casualties back to life, and all will be well again.

Who does he think he's fooling? Okay, other than his paid retainers in the popular media, who does he think he's fooling?

our troops don't mind fighting and dying while you argue semantics with your critics.

:sarcasm: