Bush blunt with Bremer: He wants results

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20031113/ts_usatoday/11949693&cid=676&ncid=1480

<snip>Other analysts, however, see the shift as part of a pattern Bush has forged repeatedly from the early days of his administration, in which he gradually comes round to a position he had rejected earlier and claims it as his own.

• When congressional Democrats first proposed creation of a Homeland Security Department in response to 9/11, Bush said it wasn't necessary. But when the idea grew more and more popular, he embraced it as his own.

• Bush at first said no United Nations resolution or congressional vote was needed to go to war in Iraq. But when the criticism grew too loud to ignore, he acquiesced on both, and prevailed.

• Now, after insisting for months that authority could not be handed over to Iraqis until a constitution was created and elections were held, Bush appears to be adopting the view of the French and others who said power must be handed over more quickly.

more

[w13rd0]

1. I thought Rice was the "unsticker"...

...this just sounds like more shuffling of the pawns, same fab approach they tried with Homeland Security. Can Bush get ANYTHING right? I mean, outside criminal kickbacks to cronies?

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

12. and * the "potsticker"

He's made quite a mess...

[burythehatchet]

17. mmmmm....potstickers....

i love those..especially when the sauce is really spicy

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well, bombing them Eye-Rackies

back into the Stone Age with 2k pounders ought to help the cause along pretty well.

[Brucey]

3. Even Bush is starting to get it.

This thing has no end. It won't be long and the Bush team will understand what they must do: Drain as much money from the US treasury as they can and give it to their friends and supporters ($87bn a good start); then have big conservative US corporations buy Iraqi corporations and resources at rock-bottom prices (Bremer already proclaimed this legal, but it might take 6 months or more to complete the deals); set up a provisional government (they'll need a lot of military protection - but we have the money now to set up a private army for Iraq's new leaders); then declare victory and bring home some of the troops for the televised ticker-tape parades and heros welcomes. This has to be done before the 2004 election, probably in July or August. What else can they do?

[ze_dscherman]

4. As always, Steve Bell's cartoon is priceless

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,1083979,00.html

[leesa]

5. He's GOT the only results he could possibly expect with this foolish

plan. The ONLY possible result of pre-emptive military action against a compliant, disarmed country with many millions of people trained since birth to be warriors is terrorism and chaos.

[cthrumatrix]

6. LOL...shrub just wants to be re-elected. If he wanted results

he would focus that $87B on the US economy

[Serial Mom]

7. Typical . . .

Takes credit for ideas not his, and on top of it, claims he thought of it first -

but when something he thought of (or should I say the neo-cons ideas) doesn't go right, he BLAMES others instead of taking some responsibility himself.

How juvenile is all I have been saying about this pResident who acts like a 12 yr old who is immature but beginning to think he is an adult!

Why, if things like this are printed in papers or on the net or reported on TV, why doesn't half of Amercia figure out what an a$$ he is and how detrimental he has been!?!?

[Ripley]

8. Didn't he also fire those guys that "didn't" get results?

Like Harvey Pitt and one or two Treasury secretary's?

[Serial Mom]

9. And Garner

the first head of reconstrcution of Irag

[SpiralHawk]

10. Leave It To Bremer

New TV tragi-com reality show.

Starring Eddie Haskell as "The Shrub" and Mike Meyers as "The Bremer."

You won't know whether to laugh or cry.

[berner59]

11. contrived???

Doesn't it seem all too obvious when things start going bad, the bombs are set off to give a "we're taking the upper hand" "Operation Iron Hammer" look but who knows if we're just bombing civilians??? What happened to all the "good news"???

This is all blowing up in Bush's face but the saddest/sickest part is that he's taken so many precious young lives for this mess...he really should be tried as a murderer...

[leetrisck]

13. And Bremer said to bush "Whatcha gonna do?

Send me to Iraq - flake off.

[Malva Zebrina]

14. all of that is certainly true

but there is somethng about this whole thing that is nagging at my intuition. Totally unscientific intuition--it does not feel right--something really big is behind this turn around I think--:shrug:

[Nlighten1]

15. But Bush didn't meet with Bremer...Cheney did...

The Chimp was completely left out of the meeting from what I heard.

[Gloria]

16. Excellent report on Radio Australia this AM--first, an Iraqi who lives

in Melbourne, saying that the Iraqi people know that the council members are CROOKS (his words), so shifting more responsiblity to them may not do the trick. They know the council was hand-picked by the US and it hasn't proven itself to the Iraqi people.

All this shifting of power stuff is an attempt to change the political climate in Iraq...but it may not work at all..

Then, a live, on the ground report from Baghdad...repeating this whole idea plus reiterating that US soldiers are very nervous and shooting people won't help the situation. The "hammer" technique probably will turn more Iraqis agains the US instead of diminishing the insurgent numbers. She said the Iraqis are very articulate in expressing how they feel about the American presence--we are seen as occupiers.

[Fleshdancer]

18. he only begins to realize he's made bad decisions when

his poll numbers start dropping. For months we've been waking up to the news every morning of soldiers dying in Iraq and for months he's been saying everything is going well.

They've screwed up everything so badly when the poll numbers were good for Bush, I can't imagine how bad things are going to get now that they feel the need to rush the process in time for our 2004 elections...not that they should be too concerned because diebold is committed to getting them the vote. :grr:

[young_at_heart]

19. Who cares if you want results, Mr. Bush?

I don't remember the exact words.....but it might have been, "Who cares what you think"? He said that to a reporter, I believe. Maybe it's time for America to turn it back on him!