Bush stalling for time while Americans die in Iraq - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5890400

Article Last Updated: 05/14/2007 12:09:03 AM MDT


When 11 Republican members of Congress trooped over to the White House last week to speak frankly to President Bush about the Iraq war, it may not have popped the bubble around The Decider but it did pry a few bricks out of the wall that has kept unpleasant truths at a distance.

It seems that the representatives let their leader know that there will be a public reckoning of both American military progress and Iraqi political progress at the end of this summer.

The underlying message is that bad news on either front this September - when the U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus has promised an assessment of how the surge, or escalation of U.S. troop strength, is working - could provoke further defections of Republicans on the Hill.

For the moment the Republicans will uphold the president's vetoes of Democratic war-funding bills that set a timetable for beginning the withdrawal of American troops, but that could change.

[Erika]

1. Yeah, the GOP has rubber stamped this entire Iraqi war

3,396 dead and now they choose to bail? What about those dead and the 26,000 maimed. That is in the GOP backs.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. K&R

[habitual]

3. k + r

[AndyA]

4. Every one of the Republicans has been on their back with their legs spread

for Bush and his war. No oversight whatsoever, other than occassional "pretend" investigations. No checks and balances. One blank check after another.

Do they really think that standing up to Bush at the end of summer will work? Are Americans so stupid that they will forget what got us into this mess in the first place. Perhaps the GOP is hoping Americans will have a short memory span, which means it's up to the Democrats to label this war what it is: The Bush/GOP/Iraq war.

The Republicans enabled it. They failed to oversee the details, they failed to question it.

It's their war. They helped create it. They sustained it. We've got to make sure it's stuck to them permanently. They cannot walk away from this and pretend they had nothing to do with it. It's theirs. They own it.

[formercia]

6. Don't forget the 'Loyal Opposition'

they had their fingers in the pie too.

[AndyA]

8. Yes, you are correct, but since they were not in power and were largely

ignored by the GOP at the time, I'm willing to cut them some slack for that.

Not a lot, but a little.

They must make it up to the American people, though now that they are in charge.

And standing firm, not giving in to Bush on the funding and troop redeployment dates, and smacking a decal on the forehead of every Republican in Congress that says: I created the Bush/GOP/Iran War will be a good start.

[The Count]

5. Finally! The truth spelled out! It's a start!

[gratuitous]

7. That's a pretty funny line

But the Trib editorial writers should stick to their day jobs, rather than try for a new career in stand up comedy: "the representatives let their leader know that there will be a public reckoning." See, Bush doesn't care about public opinion or polls or what anyone else says. He never has to stand for election again, and he knows that impeachment proceedings will go nowhere because his fellow Republicans will immolate their own careers before holding him to account for his high crimes and misdemeanors. Running out the clock has been an effective strategy so far, and there's no solid reason to believe that it can't work for another 20 months.

In the meantime, that means another 2,000 military dead, hundreds of billions of dollars squandered, thousands of casualties, and unnumbered tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. But who really cares? Certainly not the Republicans.