White House Losing GOP Support in Iraq

[jeo4]

Source: Yahoo! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070508/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq)

GOP senator: Patience on Iraq is limited

WASHINGTON - Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record) said Monday that President Bush's new strategy in Iraq has until about fall before GOP members will need to see results.

Lott's comment put a fine point on what Senate Republican stalwarts have been discussing quietly for weeks. It also echoed remarks made this weekend by House Minority Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, indicating the GOP's limited patience on the war.

"I do think this fall we have to see some significant changes on the ground, in Baghdad and other surrounding areas," Lott, R-Miss., told reporters.

Lott declined to say what he thinks should happen if Congress does not see improvement in the security situation by then. But he said lawmakers have time before they must decide.

Bush announced in January that he planned to send to Iraq 21,500 more combat troops, plus several thousand more support troops, in an attempt to tamp down violence in Baghdad and the western Anbar province. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said he could give a better assessment in September of whether the strategy is working.

Republicans have agreed to uphold Bush's veto of $124.2 billion legislation that would have funded the war but called for troops to start coming home this fall. Without the two-thirds majority support needed to override Bush's veto, Democrats this week were redrafting the bill.

White House officials have sought to play down the expectations of the September review as merely a progress report, but many Republicans have latched onto the date as a critical juncture. War funding for this fiscal year, while still under negotiation, is expected to run out Sept. 30.

"Obviously, his (Petraeus') response or developments will make a difference in the next fiscal year," said Lott.

Lott said he generally agreed with Boehner, who told "Fox News Sunday" that, "By the time we get to September or October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B."

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I'm not surprised. Not in the least. Any opinions on what happens next?

[EVILxxx]

Yeah the same bill minus a pullout date. Less pork this time would be nice though.

[The Postmaster General]

I really don't know what will happen, but can I get a dialogue doing about this pull-out date? To me, I don't see the problem. If you hire contractors to build you a home, at some point you want to see your home built or at least see the plans to get the home built. If there is a plan that isn't working, you insist that a new one is made. You don't just keep giving the contractors more and more money based on good faith. That's how capitalism works <-half kidding there.

Right now, here is all I can see as the best case scenario: Everything is under control in Iraq, and there is some secret mission we can't know about right now. There is some reason we have our troops there that doesn't have to do with the reason we are being told.

That's pretty bad when a government conspiracy seems like the best case scenario. But I hope that's what's going on, because a ground war, and all of this stuff we see happening - please let it be a decoy or something. We have so much intelligence and covert capabilities. Maybe it's like Miami Vice except in Iraq - yeah, that's silly, but just as silly as saying it's like GI JOE. So, let's put the analogies aside. What I'm getting at here is that there must be more than what's reported in the media, but that's because the media cannot know how it is that they do whatever it is that they do.

So, yeah - I hope they keep up the provision to send the troops home. There is probably a safer and more efficient way we could do this that doesn't involve risking the lives of 21.5k service men and women, and no outwardly vocal homosexuals.

President Bush was interviewed on prime time, I think it was 2005, but can't remember the show. They asked him why we haven't captured Osama, and Bush said something like, "What makes you think we haven't?" --- Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't joking. Fortunately, I am joking when I wonder this.