U.S. President George W. Bush asked the American people for patience regarding the war in Iraq.
George W. Bush marked the beginning of the fifth year of the Iraq war on Monday by warning the Democratic-controlled Congress to approve $100bn in emergency funding for the war “without strings and without delay”.
The US president, whose poll approval numbers are hovering just above his all-time low, also warned Capitol Hill that any attempt to withdraw American forces from Iraq could prove “devastating” and spark a regional civil war.
In his five-minute televised address Mr Bush’s choice of words were notably more downbeat and realistic than in many of the president’s previous statements on the war in Iraq. However, he said the “new way forward in Iraq”, which he unveiled in his last Iraq address in January, was beginning to take effect.
Mr Bush said that if US and Iraqi forces continued to make progress in their joint security operations in Baghdad and elsewhere then the war “can be won”. This contrasts with the president’s traditional statements of confidence in the ultimate certainty of US victory. Mr Bush said that fewer than half of the 21,500 new combat troops had so far arrived in Iraq.
“I want to stress that this operation is still in the early stages. … The new strategy will need more time to take effect. And there will be good days, and there will be bad days,” he said. “Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won. It will be won if we have the courage and resolve to see it through.”
As Joe Gandelman points out Bush has one gigantic problem. It’s called credibility. This is not the first time that Bush tells the American (and at the same time Iraqis and, well, all other citizens of the world really) to have patience, that it will (or might) work out, etc. Thus far, sadly, every plan has been without real, lasting results.
Where George W. Bush asked the American people for patience, his press secretary, Tony Snow, told CNN’s Ed Henry to “zip it”:
During this morning’s press gaggle, Tony Snow told reporters that Bush will use the speech to attack the House plan for Iraq as a “recipe for defeat” that would “provide a victory for the enemy.”
CNN’s Ed Henry told Snow that since he was attacking the House plan, he should explain the Bush administration’s “recipe for success.” According to Henry, Snow “tried to turn it around on me,” asking Henry what his recipe for success was. When Henry objected to Snow’s question, Snow told him to “zip it.”
To be fair:
Snow later apologized. He said he felt that was inappropriate for him to say that to me. But I point it out because I think it shows the White House a little bit on the defensive this morning about this anniversary.
You can watch the video at Think Progress and, of course, at Crooks and Liars. John Amato notes that “Snow seems to lose it with reporters.”
