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Bush: Pulling Out of Iraq Not an Option
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Saturday that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and many people asked in polls to start bringing U.S. troops home.``The terrorists and insurgents are trying to get us to retreat. Their goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a chance to show the region what a government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens can do for its people,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address. ``We will settle for nothing less than victory'' over terrorists there, he said later. Bush acknowledged discontent over his decisions but signaled no shift in policy or timing for the American presence in Iraq. ``Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror,'' he said. ``This mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight.'' The administration insists no timetable can be set for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been sufficiently trained to take over the fight against the insurgency. Anything else, the administration argues, would only embolden the insurgency. Bush also paid tribute to progress seen in Iraq this week. Iraq's Shiite-led parliament and leaders of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency, agreed on a process for drafting Iraq's constitution. ``Time and again, the Iraqi people have defied the skeptics who claim they are not up to the job of building a free society,'' he said. ``I am confident that Iraqis will continue to defy the skeptics as they build a new Iraq that represents the diversity of their nation and assumes greater responsibility for their own security. And when they do, our troops can come home with the honor they have earned.'' After elections in January, writing a constitution is Iraq's next milestone in its fits-and-starts transition to democracy. Later this year, the document is to put up for a vote in a public referendum and then a new government is to be elected. Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=121991 |