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President Bush Thursday held firm on his Iraq policy despite growing unease over his strategy among Republican lawmakers. Bush said drawing down forces now “would be a disaster.” Democratic leaders in Congress are working on a slew of initiatives aimed at quickly reducing the level of combat troops in Iraq and seized on an interim assessment report that shows Iraq is making only some progress toward goals that would help stabilize the country. “Sometimes the debate over Iraq is cast as a disagreement between those who want to keep our troops in Iraq and those who want to bring our troops home,” Bush said during a press conference. “This is not the real debate. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to see the day when our brave servicemen and -women can start coming home.” Instead, the president argued, “the real debate over Iraq is between those who think the fight is lost or not worth the cost and those who believe the fight can be won, and that, as difficult as the fight is, the costs of defeat would be far higher.” The interim assessment report stated that satisfactory progress has been made on eight of 18 benchmarks, including reducing sectarian violence, ensuring that the rights of minority parties are protected and allocating funds to ministries and provinces. However, in many areas, progress is falling short of expectations, including curbing militia control of local security, reforming de-Baathification, ensuring that Iraqi security forces are enforcing the law evenhandedly and increasing the number of Iraqi Security Forces capable of operating independently. Democrats said the report showed that it is time to change America’s Iraq policy. “The Iraqi government has not met the key political benchmarks it has set for itself and Iraqi security forces continue to lag well behind expectations,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. “We must change course now, not in September. It is time for the president to listen to the American people and do what is necessary to protect this nation. That means admitting his Iraq policy has failed, working with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on crafting a new way forward in Iraq and refocusing our collective efforts on defeating al Qaeda.” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) blasted the administration for trying to make the report, which White House spokesman Tony Snow called “balanced and sober,” look more positive than it is. “Does this White House think that we don’t know how to turn on our televisions? Don’t tell us we’re making progress in Iraq when the last three months have been some of the deadliest since this war began for our brave troops who have sacrificed so much,” Obama said. “And don’t tell us it’s progress when the Iraqi leadership has done nothing — nothing — to take the political steps necessary to end their civil war,” Obama added. |
