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

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (709020)	10/26/2005 10:15:38 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Those who post anonymously lie so often. A person in severe pain does not get high taking lots of powerful painkillers. It is not at all like a recreational user. recreational liars post anonymously. All see the recreational liar at work again.

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (709020)	10/26/2005 10:18:11 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

U.S. Envoy Says Some G.I.'s in Iraq May Come Home Next Year By DAVID STOUT Published: October 26, 2005 WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 - The United States ambassador to Iraq conceded today that the insurgents in that country remain strong and will take considerable time to defeat. But he said the Iraqis were making steady progress toward democracy, and that some American troops might be able to come home in the next year. Skip to next paragraph "I think that the insurgents and the terrorists remain strong," Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said after briefing President Bush at the White House. "They present a significant challenge in Iraq. But I believe that they're on the wrong side of history, that the people of Iraq are moving away from them, including the Sunni community." Mr. Khalilzad's remarks coincided with two landmark developments in the American-led campaign to build a new country from the rubble of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship: the ratification of the new Iraqi constitution, and the announcement that 2,000 Americans military personnel had been killed in Iraq. But Mr. Khalilzad said the sacrifice had not been in vain. "Americans should be proud of the role that we as a nation are playing in Iraq," he said. "We are supporting the needed political and economic transformation of the broader Middle East, because authoritarianism and repression breed the kind of terrorists who struck us on Sept. 11." No direct connection has ever been found between the old Baghdad regime and the terrorists who carried out the 2001 attacks. But President Bush has said repeatedly that the campaign in Iraq is part of a wider war against terrorism, and Mr. Khalilzad reiterated that theme today. The ambassador said that political progress in Iraq and the growing strength of Iraqi security forces might make it possible for American forces to be reduced, despite the strength of the insurgency. "But that decision, of course, will be made by the president based on the recommendations from the commanders," he said. Mr. Bush has said often in recent months that as Iraq's own security forces gain strength, American troops "will come home to the honor they deserve." Critics of his administration's policy have also pointed to remarks by Vice President Dick Cheney last spring that now seem overly optimistic. "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency," Mr. Cheney said on May 30. One of the administration's most persistent critics, Senator John Kerry, called today for the administration to withdraw 20,000 troops from Iraq after the December elections there. Staying the present course without a specific withdrawal plan will invite a "quagmire," Mr. Kerry said. "We will never be as safe as we should be if Iraq continues to distract us from the most important war we must win - the war on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the terrorists that are resurfacing even in Afghanistan," said Mr. Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Democratic candidate for president in 2004. Mr. Khalilzad did not offer a timetable today. "I said before that the insurgency and the terrorists remain a formidable challenge, strong," he said. "And their defeat will take time and will require progress on multiple tracks." Ultimate success, he said, will be achieved not just by military strength but by persuading Iraq's neighbors not to interfere in the new country's development, and by letting the new constitution take effect. Mr. Khalilzad said the charter "is a living document," like the United States Constitution, capable of changing to meet the needs of all Iraqis, including the minority Sunnis, who opposed it in large numbers. "There were no winners or losers among the Iraqi people," he said, alluding to the ratification of the document. "The only losers in this referendum were the terrorists and the Saddamists who want to destroy the democratic aspirations of the people of Iraq."