McClatchy: Bush asks nation for patience

[babylonsister]

Bush asks nation for patience
By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — President Bush announced in a nationally televised address Thursday night that 5,700 U.S. troops would leave Iraq by December.

Bush formally embraced the recommendations made earlier this week by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, to withdraw as many as 21,500 combat forces and an undetermined number of support troops by July.

That would effectively roll back the troop "surge" Bush ordered in January, while leaving more than 130,000 troops still in Iraq indefinitely — as many as were there before the surge began.

Bush asked the nation for patience, saying that more troops could return home as the situation improves on the ground, but he gave no specifics as to how many or when.

The president cast his gradual withdrawal plan as one based on a "return on success."

"The more successful we are, the more American troops can come home," Bush said from the Oval Office.

By leaving his war strategy effectively unchanged, Bush remains at odds with congressional Democrats who want to pull all U.S. combat troops out of Iraq on a rapid timetable. Their conflicting positions seem to assure that Congress and the president will continue to clash over Iraq and that the war will remain the dominant issue hanging over the 2008 presidential campaign.

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[defendandprotect]

1. Did he mention bankrupting our Treasury . . . . or maybe the misplaced nculear bombs?