Rich Lowry on interview with Bush -- He's not looking for a way out of Iraq
Bush makes his case on Iraq. He's not turning.
By Kate O'Beirne & Rich Lowry
Forget the leaks and the speculation, President George W. Bush is not looking for a way out of the surge and the Iraq war.
Forgive the bold. Lots of folks have been believing the rumors
In a session with about ten conservative journalists Friday afternoon, a confident and determined president made it clear that he is going to see the surge through, and will rely on General David Petraeuss advice on how to proceed come September, regardless of the political climate in Washington.
He scoffed at reports to the contrary in the press. When specifically asked about a Washington Post article this week reporting that his administration is looking for a way to draw down, President Bush said dismissively, I didnt read it, and then, there are a lot of talkers in Washington. When it was pointed out that the sources were people in his administration, he repeated, just as dismissively, Thats what I said, there are a lot of talkers. He said that not everyone gets to talk to him: Im not on the phone chatting up with these people writing these articles, ascribing motives to me.
The president made his intentions clear Friday afternoon. Hes not going to abandon the surge, despite all the talk of his administration being willing to move to the Iraq Study Group model of the Iraq war. He views this period as fundamental for deciding whether or not this nation is going to be secure throughout a lot of the 21st century. And therefore when it comes to the war in Iraq, as you know, I made a decision not to leave but to put more in, and I will support our troops and support Gen. Petraeus, his plan.
The ideal world, he adds, is that there would be some bipartisan consensus at some point in time to be there for a while. Can we achieve that? I dont know. Its worth trying. Its worth talking to people about it. But referring back to his statements in support of the surge, he said, with emphasis in his voice, Its very important for you all to understand that thats exactly what I mean.
Pressed on whether the surge can be sustained despite all the difficulties, he said, Thats the challenge, but Im optimistic about it. He said that back in January, I suspect youd be asked the same question, particularly since the outcry was quite significant. But he went with the surge.
How can he possibly do this, he said, characterizing what critics of the war were thinking. Cant he see? Cant he hear? (At one point he acknowledged that these decisions arent easy You dont know what its like to be commander-in-chief until youre commander-in-chief, he said.)
He explained that last fall, if I had been part of this polling, if they had called upstairs and said, do you approve of Iraq I would have been on the 66 percent who said, `No I dont approve. Thats why I made the decision I made. To get in a position where I would be able to say Yes, I approve.
President Bush understands the public frustration with the war: We put highly trained sophisticated military people in harms way and they battle $100 IEDs. He worries about exhaustion as were dealing with these radicals who have a lot of energy and who arent going to be tired. But he said he has tools in the debate, including the bully pulpit and the ability to convince the American people. He wants both to convince them that success is still possible, and remind my fellow citizens of what the consequences of failure will be.
He says he has four audiences when he broadcasts his commitment to the mission in Iraq: the American public; the American military and their families; the Iraqis (because there are a lot of people who doubt Americas resolve); and the enemy (the enemy thinks that we are weak theyre sophisticated people, and they listen to the debate). As for that last audience, I really think the additional forces into Iraq surprised thema lot.
The president said its important to get good news that the media cant downplay or ignore, to get tangible evidence that even the filter cant filter out less violence, less [casualties]. (He jokingly said, referring to a sermon he had heard at Camp David, were good news people in a bad news world.) He noted the importance of the example of Anbar. He said that six months ago al Qaeda was declared the winner as the result of one intelligence report. But not now: Today al Qaeda is the loser, the situation changed dramatically.
He marveled at one of the medias lines of questioning at his Thursday press conference, They asked me yesterday Are you sure its al Qaeda [in Iraq]? Yeah, how do you know? Because they swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden is how I know. Yeah, its al Qaeda. My point though to people is that it is the same crowd that killed 3,000 that is trying to drive us out of Iraq.
Anbar isnt as complicated as the rest of the country since there isnt the element of sectarian conflict that there is in the rest of the country. President Bush talked of a ground-up approach to reconciliation. He said that security is most important, then other initiatives can come up behind, including aggressive use of PRTs [provincial reconstruction teams] to convince local folks that life can progress even though they may have suspicion of the central government. (Local elections is one of the key reforms because of the election boycotts that previously took place in the Sunni areas, he said.)
And when it comes to pouring resources into areas where the insurgency is chased out, If the central government wont do it, we will through PRTs. He said he talked with leaders of some of the PRTs today, and their question was will we have the time? My answer is...I have got to get us in the position so we will have time.
Repeatedly, the president expressed the utmost confidence in Gen. Petraeus. He expects to get a straight report from him in September and for the generals voice to be taken seriously in the debate over the war. The most credible person in the fight at this moment is Gen. David Petraeus, he said. He mused that Petraeus is very effective in explaining the strategy, but that he obviously has other demands on his time in addition to the need to brief Congress and do media interviews.
President Bush rejected the notion that he will be constrained by the availability of troops come next spring and will have to draw down the surge. He said, with a pointed ending to his answer, The key factor that Im confident that David Petraeus is looking at as he comes back is how to achieve the initial objective he set out, which is to provide enough security for the political process to move forward. Im sure that in the bowels of the Pentagon people are looking at troop rotations and troop movements, but that is not the primary objective of our commander on the groundnext question.
Asked specifically if that meant that Petraeus would get the troops to continue past the spring if he needed them, he said, We will work as hard as we can. People said we couldnt find the troops for the last reinforcement as well, but he added that hes mindful of troop rotations and time in theater.
He said, eventually, We need to be in a position that can sustain a long-term troop presence, although that depends on conditions on the ground.
George W. Bush remains committed to his overarching vision of freedom, with which he opened this afternoons discussion: There is such a thing as the universality of freedom. I strongly believe that Muslims desire to be free just like Methodists desire to be free. Some may doubt that, but no one can doubt this presidents resolve in Iraq.
Posted by: Sherry 2007-07-14 |