Defense of New Iraqi Military to Lead Off Bush's New Propaganda Tour

[bigtree]

Today Bush will give the first of three speeches on Iraq which he hopes will revive his weak poll numbers and give his nervous fellow republicans some cover for the disaster they created and supported. Bush will reportedly start his roadshow highlighting the Iraqi forces he's fostered and equipped.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060313_defense_of_new_iraqi.htm



Rob Kall at http://www.opednews.com has been kind enough to let me publish my articles at his site. They don't get much play here, but DU is my main hangout, so . . . here it is.

[Don Claybrook]

1. What could this dimwit possibly say about Iraq?

As civil wars go, this one seems to be starting well?

Is the submoron even aware that there's no getting the genie back into the bottle? I think this will help contribute to the notion that he's completely delusional. Sure, we've known that forever, but the public as a whole is beginning to catch on, I think. The continued denial of reality won't be doing him any favors.

[bigtree]

7. he'll speak from a script written by Cheney and Rove

It follows their original narrative which casts Bush as hero, Osama as devil, Saddam as devil's advocate, and Iran and Syria as outposts of hell.

[PsN2Wind]

2. If he takes any questions

I hope that someone would ask him a question that Mark Shields asked on Lehrer. Not an exact quote but "How can the US take a kid off a tractor in Iowa and in fourteen weeks, have him in Iraq "fighting for Iraqi freedom", yet three years into this mess, the Iraqis can't field a battalion capable of fighting on their own"??? That was the gist of his statement and one that has puzzled me also.

[bigtree]

3. It's hard to tell if the cabal cares if they're ready or not

One day they're telling us the Iraqi forces are taking over, the next they claim there aren't any units that can stand on their own. I think they're caught in between wanting to get rid of the political problem, but keep the troops in place for future meddling in Iraq and elsewhere.

My feeling is that they don't care at all about the troops, ours or theirs. All they're concerned with is maintaining Bush's relevance play. Once that's over, so is he.

[bigtree]

4. The Mission: Find a Way to Stay Relevant

Bush's troubleshooting plan is to explain Iraq better and stick with his same team

By MIKE ALLEN
Sunday, Mar. 12, 2006
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,117217...

After stepping off Air Force One in Atlanta last week and boarding a cherry red Ford Expedition near the front of President George W. Bush's motorcade, Karl Rove rolled down his window and leaned out to talk to a clump of Georgia Congressmen who had followed him across the tarmac and were looking for a ride. "Keep going!" the White House deputy chief of staff instructed the group, motioning them toward the gray staff vans farther back.

Rove was being playful, but he might as well have been rehearsing the motto for this battered White House, where change remains suspect, momentum is elusive and patience seems to be the only prescription. Just 16 months after the President's re-election, his Capitol Hill allies are in a funk, pointing fingers and worrying about their survival in November's midterm elections. Even Bush loyalists fear the Commander in Chief is in a hole with no ladder. When the Dubai company that the Administration had okayed to run several U.S. ports pulled out of the widely derided deal last week, the President escaped from a fight with a Republican-controlled Congress that had the public overwhelmingly on its side. In the long run, though, the company's withdrawal may turn out to mark the moment Bush became a lame duck. "The ports deal showed that the Congress is completely going its own way," said a presidential adviser. White House officials contend that Bush quickly realized the ports affair was a fiasco. "I know a prairie fire when I see one," the Texas rancher told an aide. The most politically injurious fallout could be new constraints on Bush's ability to play what had been his strong card—his national-security credentials.

In an acknowledgment that he needs to offer a more convincing message on Iraq, the President is scheduled to deliver a series of three speeches this month that aim at persuasion, a departure from his usual hallmark of repetition. Bush plans to describe U.S. efforts to develop new defenses against insurgents' improvised explosive devices and give town-by-town case studies of how his strategy for victory in Iraq is playing out. "It's not going to change people's anxieties," a White House official said. "What it will do is help provide a greater understanding of why these events are happening and what we're doing to try to change them. We talk about the strategy oftentimes from 30,000 feet. What we're trying to do here is say how it is actually being applied on the ground."

With little hope of getting much legislation passed in an election year, Bush plans to stay relevant through an aggressive schedule of fund raising and rally stops for Republican candidates, most of whom are still eager for presidential visits. One Bush adviser sees political promise for the President in a nuclear peril. "Certainly, there's going to be a serious showdown on Iran," he said. "He's very relevant on that, and that may help his numbers a little bit . . ."


full article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1172179,00.html

[leftchick]

6. in other words

same shit different day. I am just pissed he keeps wasteing my taxpayer dollars on his failed campiagn tours.

[warrens]

5. They've been preparing the way for this for a couple of weeks

Military guys showing up on talk shows and saying how great the Iraqi army and cops are. No evidence, just the flat statement that they're grrrrrreat. Which is ludicrous. They're shot full of insurgent sympathizers, people who can't get a job anywhere else, and undercover militia members. They're virtually unarmed, no armor, no heavy weapons, and they go the other way when the insurgents show up.

Just another bald-faced bush lie.

[bigtree]

8. transcript for t-day's prop

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060313-3.html