Posted by
Dawnsblood on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:16:36 PM
Althouse
wants to know if we are satisified?
Marc at American Freedom says "
It could work".
With a full awareness that the strategy may be too little, too late, I support it.
We've reached this point because of past mistakes. That being the case,
it's the least bad of the alternatives that are now available. Nobody
any longer supports staying the course. Withdrawal, I believe, would
entail all of the negative consequences mentioned by Bush.
Powerline?
So let's see what happens. The administration has bought itself a
window of time, at least until the 2008 campaign heats up, to try to
achieve discernible signs of progress. While the new strategies sound
to me like good ideas--one wonders why some of them weren't implemented
some time ago--the more important factor, I think, is sheer
persistence. The President will persist; let's all hope and pray that
he succeeds.
Tigerhawk?
5. For the first time that I know of, the President accused Iran of
waging war on the United States (that is what supplying arms to our
enemies is, in case you missed it). The extra carrier task force was
necessary and welcome punctuation, and in any case the ground is lid
for air strikes along the borders of Iran and Syria.
Murdoc?
This seems to be a rather mediocre delivery. Which is pretty good
for W. Once again I've got the feeling that if Tony Blair were the US
President and was giving this same speech using the exact same text,
folks in living rooms across America would be standing and cheering
every point.
He notes that if we announced phased withdrawals, the killings will
be on a "scale unimaginable". Actually, they're not all that
unimaginable. We've seen them before. When we've left before we should
have. When we never went in the first place. They are all too imaginable.
McQ?
But as I reviewed his plan I couldn't help but think, "maybe, just maybe this has an outside chance".
Now
hear me well. To have that outside chance it must be executed very well
and completely. Everyone has to show up on time and do their job. But
it may have an outside shot. The wild card remains the Iraqis and maybe
this is just enough to see them start standing up. Or maybe I just want
to see success too much and am more likely to ignore the real
possibility that what we've seen in Iraq is what we're likely to see
more of. I hope not.
Anyway, as I've said for quite some time,
our job is to train the ISF not fight the insurgency. Apparently
President Bush has decided differently. I wish him and his plan luck
and hope like hell it works.
The first half is here. God I hope it works.
Addendum: I beg to remind you of this post and the comments 'A Jacksonian' offered.