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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (560971)	4/7/2004 12:05:59 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769667

"tejek" must be some subhuman shithole's word for "retarded". You're not long out of the pigpen, are you ? When will evolution work its magic?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (560971)	4/7/2004 12:08:43 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Read it and weep............. *************************************************** Political fallout in United States about Iraq violence By BILL STRAUB Scripps Howard News Service April 06, 2004 - Growing public concern over the situation in Iraq is creating more political concern within President Bush's re-election campaign. With regional violence suddenly escalating and the American military death toll mounting, the president's aides are mapping a strategy to bolster voter confidence in administration policies while raising questions about the ability of John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to formulate a superior approach. Despite those efforts, numbers show the Bush team has a problem. While a new Pew Research Center Poll concludes that 57 percent of those surveyed continue to support the president's decision to confront Iraq, only 43 percent express approval of his job performance - a valley in his 39-month presidency. Andrew Kohut, the Pew center's director, attributed those declining numbers, at least in part, to "continued turmoil and violence in Iraq." Recent news out of Iraq has not proved good for the administration. America and its allies are simultaneously battling to suppress a Shiite-inspired uprising in southern Iraq and Sunni insurgents in Fallujah - almost a year after Bush arrived on the USS Lincoln to declare the major shooting phase of the war over. Clashes since the weekend have resulted in the deaths of almost two-dozen American troops, and the world has been exposed to gruesome photographs and videotape of four American civilians whose charred corpses were beaten and hung from a bridge by Iraqi mobs. Bush, by his own account, remains "an optimistic fellow." Appearing Tuesday at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado, the president said the nation is "marching to peace" in Iraq despite recent setbacks. "We've got tough work there because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the advance of freedom," Bush said. "That's what you're seeing going on. These people hate freedom - and we love freedom. And that's where the clash occurs." Bush said he looked at the intelligence regarding Iraq "and saw a threat." When Saddam Hussein refused demands to provide information about weapons of mass destruction in his possession, the president said he decided to act. "So I was in a dilemma," he said. "I had a choice to make - do I trust the word of a madman, a tyrant, somebody who had used weapons of mass destruction on his own people and on countries within his neighborhood, or do I remember the lessons of Sept. 11 and defend America? Given the choice between a madman and defending the country, I will defend America every time." The resulting war failed to uncover any weapons of mass destruction. Bush now faces an increasingly violent situation and the prospect of turning governmental authority back to the Iraqis on June 30, as he has vowed, and the possibility of sending additional troops to support the 130,000 already there. Kerry, a Massachusetts senator who voted to authorize the war but has been critical of the postwar conduct, has largely been silent about the events in Iraq over the past few days, taking time for a brief vacation and concentrating his remarks on the nation's economy. In a conversation with reporters on Monday, Kerry said Bush is obligated to explain who he intends to turn sovereignty over to on June 30 and what America's security plan is for the aftermath. "I think it requires a new U.N. resolution that involves a broader-based, genuine coalition and I regret that this administration has not been willing to be less ideological and more practical on behalf of the American people," said Kerry, who is recuperating from shoulder surgery. If Kerry has been relatively mum about recent events in Iraq, one of his key surrogates, fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, has not. Kennedy, in an address to the Brookings Institution in Washington on Monday, declared that Iraq has become "George Bush's Vietnam." Bush, Kennedy said, "is the problem, not the solution," adding that "this country needs a new president."** knoxstudio.com

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (560971)	4/7/2004 12:11:41 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Administration Pressed to Increase Troop Strength in Iraq Pressure Coming From Republican and Democratic Congressional Leaders By Robin Wright and Fred Barbash Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, April 6, 2004; 4:06 PM The Bush administration is coming under intensified pressure from both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to boost U.S. troop strength in Iraq and win wider international support to handle what is widely viewed as a deteriorating security situation there. Faced with the prospect that U.S. troops could have to fight on two fronts against Sunni Muslim insurgents and followers of a Shiite religious firebrand, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that commanders in Iraq would get additional troops if they requested them. He said Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command and the overall commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, regularly reviews force requirements with his generals in Iraq. "They are the ones whose advice we follow on these things," Rumsfeld said at an appearance in Norfolk with the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "They will decide what they need, and they will get what they need." But Rumsfeld said that to date, there has been "no change" in plans for troop deployment. He said that the number deployed now, about 135,000, is unusually high because some are arriving and some are leaving, creating a temporary overlap. The military is using "the excess," but the deployment level is still set for about 115,000, he said. A senior military officer said Pentagon planning currently is limited to repositioning U.S. forces already in the region and does not involve dispatching more troops from the United States, Washington Post staff writers Bradley Graham and Robin Wright reported in today's editions. With fresh U.S. military units still pouring into Iraq as part of a rotation begun earlier this year, officials noted that the number of troops in the country is higher than it has been in months. Pentagon officials rejected suggestions that the military situation in Iraq was tumbling into deeper crisis, although several acknowledged that the militancy by Moqtada Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric, and his militia, the Mahdi Army, posed a particularly worrisome development. At his appearance in Norfolk, Rumsfeld said it was possible that NATO, which has 6,500 troops in Afghanistan in a peacekeeping role, could deploy forces to Iraq to help out there as well. He said he would be "delighted to see" NATO play a larger role in both countries. Rumsfeld's remarks came after senators from both parties called on the Pentagon yesterday to ensure that there are enough troops in Iraq to ensure that the United States can transfer political power to Iraqis by June 30 as scheduled and create conditions for the entry of NATO forces. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned yesterday that the United States is now "dangerously close" to losing control on the ground in Iraq. washingtonpost.com