CNN.com - Bush plans bid to rally Iraq support

CNN.com - Bush plans bid to rally Iraq support - Aug 22, 2005:

“In a previous attempt this summer to boost sagging support for the war, the president delivered a prime-time, nationally televised address in June to a military audience in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In his speech, Bush assured Americans that the conflict in Iraq was worth the sacrifice. (Full story)

The sacrifice includes 1,862 U.S. troops deaths, including a soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb Saturday near Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
‘Our mission in Iraq is clear: We’re hunting down the terrorists. We’re helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror,’ Bush said in June.
‘We’re advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. We are removing a source of violence and instability, and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren.’
But his remarks did little to move public opinion. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted August 5-7 found that 54 percent of those surveyed thought the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a mistake. (Full story)

The 9/11 commission’s report, issued in July 2004, found no evidence that Iraq had any operational relationship with al Qaeda.
The CIA concluded in February that Iraq had become a training ground for terrorists who wish to attack U.S. troops — a haven critics say did not exist before Saddam Hussein’s ouster.”

Crawford protests
The Iraq issue has followed Bush into his planned five-week vacation in Crawford, where dozens of antiwar demonstrators have set up a makeshift camp near his ranch.

The protesters are led by Cindy Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in April 2004.

Hundreds of white crosses commemorating U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq are now planted just outside Bush’s property, and the demonstrators drew support Sunday from folk singer Joan Baez.

“I think Cindy and the women have impeccable credentials — no matter how hard people try to slander and assassinate their personalities, it is impeccable credentials,” Baez said. “I think they simply can’t be not listened to.”

Sheehan, the founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, began camping outside Bush’s Crawford home on August 6 in hopes of having a second meeting with the president.

The first occurred in 2004, when Bush met with families of those killed in Iraq at Fort Lewis, Washington.

She left Thursday to tend to her mother, who suffered a stroke last week, but says she will return to “Camp Casey” if possible.

GOP discord
Meanwhile, some congressional Republicans have raised questions about the progress of the war.

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a long-time critic of the administration’s handling of the war, told ABC’s “This Week” that “’stay the course’ is not a policy.” (Full story)

Part of the problem, he said, “is we have no measurement for progress.”

Sen. George Allen, on the same show, backed the president’s war effort even as he acknowledged that it was beset by problems.

“I think there’s progress being made, but it’s very difficult,” said the Republican from Virginia, noting that the Iraqi parliament is attempting to meet a Monday deadline to create a draft constitution. (Full story)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told “Fox News Sunday”: “Nobody wants to withdraw, but people are concerned. It’s gone on longer than we thought. The violence is larger than we thought it would be.”

A bipartisan group of House members and Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, have proposed a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of 2006

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Will this guy ever stop? Ok, I know that I’m behind in the news and everyone has already offered their opinion, but c’mon! Why does he think he needs to rally support? Um, maybe because he’s a blithering idiot and people are really getting sick of his incompetence? No, that thought would never cross his mind.

It’s funny that he’s going to be giving his little pep speeches to boost his own confidence. We already know that he doesn’t allow anyone into these rally’s that doesn’t bow down to him. And he loves to hire people to make his speech for him. Like the little old lady that followed him around the country spouting off on how wonderful his Social Security plan is….sigh. Most people in this country have been in a fog, but they’re starting to wake up. But our great leader isn’t bright enough to realize that. Or maybe his handlers just haven’t let him see what’s really going on around him. Ok, ok, that too. If he doesn’t acknowledge it maybe it’ll go away. We all know that works so well.

Well, he’s still got his little puppet- I mean, moral base. You know the ones, they parrot everything they hear on Fox News and blindly believe everything the administration feeds them. I know a few people like that. You’d think that they’d getting tired of swallowing bullshit, but apparently it tastes pretty good.

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