Is it just me, or has George Bush just started to realize that he needs to get us out of Iraq?
(09-03) 11:13 PDT AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) —
President Bush, after hearing from top U.S. and Iraqi leaders, said Monday some American forces could be sent home if security across Iraq continues to improve as it has in Anbar Province, a former hotbed of Sunni insurgency.
But the president, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.
Despite intense pressure at home for cutbacks, Bush said decisions about troop levels “will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground — not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media.
“In other words,” the president told cheering troops at this military base, “when we begin to draw down troops from Iraq it will be from a position of strength and success — not from a position of fear and failure.”
By all accounts (other than those from the White House) the situation is not improving in Iraq, and is in fact worsening. Bush, who has been railing against any troop withdrawls, has suddenly found a way to do it: by saying that the situation is getting better, thus making it appear that his “stay the course” plan is working and setting him up to be a hero for bringing troops home under that pretense.
Capitulating to reality yet spinning it so that he wins anyway. Brilliant!
