Cut and Run?
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (L) and US President George W. Bush wave to photographers after talks at the White House in July. Bush has assured Maliki of Washington's "full support" and urged him to ignore speculation that Washington could pull the plug on support for his fragile government.(AFP/File/Karen Bleier)
Some of today's Iraq headlines:
91 die in sectarian violence in Iraq
Saddam says Iraq 'liberation at hand'
Poll: Support for Iraq war at all-time low
and last, but most certainly not least:
Bush pledges to keep US troops in Iraq
Hmmm...
The article about support for the war being at an "all-time low" is at CNN.com. According to the poll, 34% of people polled support the war, with women leading the opposition. About 40% of men polled said they supported the war.
The results from the poll come as President Bush assured the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, that the US would not be withdrawing troops any time soon.
More details:
The president's pledge came in a 15-minute morning phone call with al-Maliki, who told Bush he was concerned because he had been hearing that the United States was giving him a two-month timeline to operate on his own.
"He said that rumors sometimes can undercut confidence in the government and also its ability to work effectively in fighting terror," said Bush spokesman Tony Snow. "And the president said, 'Don't worry, you still have our full support.' "
Snow said he wasn't clear where the rumors were coming from. He said that in his talk with al-Maliki, Bush did not express any sense of urgency. Casualties have been increasing amid almost daily violence that has eroded support for the war in the United States.
A growing number of U.S. lawmakers are calling for a new strategy in Iraq, including two leading Republican senators who spoke out Sunday on television talk shows.
"The American people are not going to continue to support, sustain a policy that puts American troops in the middle of a civil war," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
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President Bush says the Democrats' call for a timetable to leave Iraq "cut and run." Is this a polite way to say "cowardly?" What are the alternatives to the current policy in Iraq? How much longer should the US stay in Iraq?
3 comentarios:
As I see it, we only have two options. We can get out or we can commit enough troops to get the job done and neither choice is good. If we leave, things could get a lot worse than they are now. The problem is that we don’t have enough troops so we would have recall members of the individual ready reserve and maybe even reinstate the draft. The American people would never support a draft so I really don’t see any solution.
@lee-- this topic seems familiar -) I agreee, any solution will have negative consequenses, one way or another. But it seems like leaving the situation where it is now is even worse. Our leadership's stubbornness and blind determination not even to discuss the way out could be used for a lot better cause.
@Ivy. The one thing we can't do is leave things as they are. It's getting worse every day and now Korea is talking about another nuclear test. I'm afraid to think where's that's going.
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