Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (759254)	2/14/2007 2:42:46 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

a flip flop? Or is the President toning down the rhetoric properly.... Bush backs away from claim on Iran By Steve Holland 15 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday backed away from a U.S. claim that Iran's leaders directed an effort to give bomb devices to Iraqi militants and said he was not using the charges as a pretext for a war with Iran. Bush also said he was prepared for a fight with the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress if lawmakers attempted to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq. "I think you can be against my decision and support the troops, absolutely," he told a White House news conference. "But the proof will be whether or not you provide them the money necessary to do the mission." Bush said he was confident that the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, provided explosive devices to Iraqi militants but admitted he did not know if Iran's leaders were behind the effort. "I don't think we know," he said. His admission came days after U.S. officials in Baghdad charged that officials at the "highest levels" of Tehran's government were involved in arming Iraqi militants -- an accusation that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to embrace. Bush is facing skepticism about the charge because his 2002 claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction proved false. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied that Iran is supplying sophisticated weapons to Iraqi militants. His voice rising with emotion, Bush said the United States was not pushing the claim as a "pretext for war." He vowed to shut down the networks responsible for the weapons. "The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing IEDs (improvised explosive devices) is preposterous. My job is to protect our troops. And when we find devices that are in that country that are hurting our troops, we're going to do something about it, pure and simple." he said. Bush's deployment of 21,500 more U.S. troops prompted Congress to debate nonbinding resolutions opposing the move. The House of Representatives this week is debating its version, and Bush was resigned to a vote against his policy. "Somebody who doesn't agree with my policy is just as patriotic a person as I am," he said. Bush said while he understood that lawmakers had differences of opinion about his plan, he questioned why they would reject a strategy being carried out by Gen. David Petraeus, who the Senate confirmed last week as the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Bush's reworked policy is taking effect as a new series of devastating suicide bombings convulse Baghdad with hundreds of deaths. The debate in Congress is between Democrats who say Americans have lost faith in the Iraq war and Bush's Republican allies who say it will undermine the U.S. struggle with terrorism. So far, none of the resolutions have talked of cutting off funds, but Congress soon will start debate on Bush's $100 billion budget request to fund U.S. forces. For the first time, Bush said he would like eventually to adopt recommendations of a bipartisan panel, led by former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-congressman Lee Hamilton, whose advice he had shrugged off in forming his new policy. "I thought that Baker-Hamilton made a lot of sense -- their recommendations. We just weren't able to get there if the capital was up in flames," Bush said. He did not say which recommendations he would like to adopt. The panel had proposed direct talks with Iran and Syria. Asked directly why he would not hold talks with Ahmadinejad, Bush said he would only do so if results could be achieved and that he wanted to maintain allied pressure on Iran to give up a drive for nuclear weapons that Tehran denies. "This is a world in which people say, 'Meet! Sit down and meet!' And my answer is: If it yields results, that's what I'm interested in," he said.