Bush Says Democrats Are Playing Politics on Iraq

ANY THOUGHTS GUYS?


July 20, 2007
Bush Says Democrats Are Playing Politics on Iraq

By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, July 20 — President Bush assailed Democrats anew about Iraq today, accusing them of choosing to indulge in a political debate over troop withdrawals rather than give the troops what they need to carry out their mission.

"It is time to rise above partisanship, stand behind our troops in the field and give them everything they need to succeed," Mr. Bush said in the White House Rose Garden. The president said he was conveying a message from the veterans and military support organizations he met this morning.

Meanwhile, the White House said September is still the next point for assessing progress in Iraq, despite statements on Thursday by the second-ranking American commander in Iraq that it would take "at least until November" to ascertain whether the revised American strategy is working. The chief White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said today that the Pentagon would provide "some clarifications" to the statements by that commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno.

President Bush spoke two days after the frustrated Democratic majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, pulled the defense-authorization bill from the Senate floor after Republicans managed to stall a proposal to begin withdrawing American troops within 120 days.

Mr. Bush said today that the shelving of the bill demonstrated that "the Democratic leaders chose to have a political debate on a precipitous withdrawal of our troops from Iraq" and were apparently content to go home for August before passing the authorization bill, which includes a pay raise for the military.

Democrats have argued that there is nothing "precipitous" about the phased withdrawal that they envision. Mr. Reid has also noted that the authorization bill would not take effect until October, in any event, and that his pulling the bill from the floor does not threaten the military's pay raise, or the needed flow of equipment and supplies.

Mr. Bush asserted again today that the Democrats' stance is illogical, given that they voted to confirm Gen. David H. Petraeus as the top commander in Iraq. Therefore, Mr. Bush said, they should give his strategy, including the current increase in troop strength, time to succeed.

General Odierno, in briefing Pentagon reporters on Tuesday, said that, while he would provide the mid-September assessment of the new strategy that Congress has demanded, it would not be possible to tell until two months later whether signs of progress were "just a blip."

The White House's promise today that General Odierno's remarks would be clarified seemed intended to dispel any suggestion that there had been a change in the schedule for gauging progress. The president ignored a questioner who asked him today whether he and General Odierno were "trying to move the goal posts from September."

"Failure in Iraq would send an unmistakable signal to America's enemies that our country can be bullied into retreat," Mr. Bush told his audience. "America's involvement in Iraq does not have to end this way. A free and stable Iraq is still in reach. It has the potential to transform the Middle East and bring us closer to the day when radical regimes are replaced by peaceful allies, when terrorists have fewer places to train and operate, and when moms and dads in the Arab world see a future of hope for their children."