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Iraq
Bush not satisfied with progress in Iraq
2007-12-21
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was not satisfied with the central Iraqi governmentÂ’s record on reconciling the countryÂ’s rival sectarian groups and carrying out reforms, vowing to press for more progress.

Bush conceded Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government needed to do more work but insisted it is functioning and passing budgets when asked if US troop reinforcements this year had given it enough room to press ahead with reconciliation as well as political and economic reform. “Your statement says security does not provide room for government to stand up and function, but it is happening. Therefore, we will continue to press them on these laws and power sharing with the central government and provinces and the oil lot,” Bush told a White House press conference.

Key benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq are the adoption of a law regulating the oil and gas industry, and a law allowing former members of Saddam HusseinÂ’s Baath Party back into the government.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  He whacked the Democrats hard too, odd you don't hear that? (Sarc)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-12-21 14:25  

#3  ...but insisted it is functioning and passing budgets... If a snipe at our own congress, a good one. If not, should have been.

Heard his speech the other morning, he sounded good.

In other news, more crapulant video games coming soon!
Posted by: swksvolFF   2007-12-21 11:44  

#2  national reconciliation -- key for an eventual US withdrawal
-- remains elusive.

Behold one of the key errors that has shaped the viable yet disappointing trajectory of the Iraq operation. Dunno if it was mostly the mistaken and gullible acceptance of the Arab psywar concept that "occupation" was something that had to be avoided at all costs (i.e., don't bother about us folks, we're just passing through, really we are, honest). Or an even more inept effort to cater to impatience and irresponsibility at home. Either way, disastrous move.

And I've never been much impressed by this goat rope of pressing the Eye-rakis on a laundry list of Sunni US demands. The logical extension of this - explaining the Surge as merely an effort to create "space" for the Iraqis to jump through our hoops - was a mistake of Carter/Clinton dimensions. It seems that the public temperature in the US has cooled sufficiently in direct response to the security gains (uh, that is "security", for those at the NSC, DOD, and in the senior ranks who seem unclear on the concept - not "reconstruction" or "reconciliation") to keep the ship afloat.

The prez would have to answer questions about this issue anyway, but making it part of our actual declared strategy/policy was just short of idiotic.

We went to Iraq to advance vital national security interests, and of course we will always be the arbiter of success on that mission. Especially given our adoption of a weak occupation model, our only leverage on the Shi'a has always been the threat of abandonment - which of course produces precisely the opposite result to what we desire, both among them and the Sunnis.

Posted by: Verlaine   2007-12-21 11:16  

#1  US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was not satisfied with the central Iraqi governmentÂ’s record on reconciling the countryÂ’s rival sectarian groups and carrying out reforms

Two in one day?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2007-12-21 06:35  

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