Bush: Iraq troop level said sufficient

[OhioChick]

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
24 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush says he has not received any request to send more American forces to Iraq and that commanders have told him the 144,000 troops already deployed are "what they can live with."

Bush also said "it's hard for me to tell" if U.S. troops will still be in Iraq when he leaves office in January 2009.

Five days before the midterm elections, the president said he understand the anxieties of Republicans who have distanced themselves from his Iraq policies. "People will run the race they need to run," he said. Bush said Democrats "don't have a plan for victory."

Bush spoke in an interview with The Associated Press and others Wednesday, a day before he headed out for five days of campaigning up to Election Day. He plans to vote Tuesday in Crawford, Texas, and then fly back to Washington to await returns at the White House.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061102/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

[babylonsister]

1. So yesterday Rummy ok'd an increase in forces, but today the

amount is sufficient? Don't these people talk to each other?

Rumsfeld OKs Increase in Iraqi Forces

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to spend at least $1 billion to expand the size and accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces.

While the plan still must get final approval from the White House and the money would have to be approved by Congress, Rumsfeld's support underscores the Bush administration's effort to shift more of the burden of Iraq's security to that country's forces.

"I'm very comfortable with the increases they've proposed and the accelerations in achievement of some of their targets," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon, noting that the Iraqi government and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, both recommended expanding Iraqi forces.

"Now it's simply a matter of our pressing forward and getting our portion of the funding from the Congress and working to see that it's executed," Rumsfeld said. He did not say how much extra U.S. money would be required.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-exec/2006/...

[keopeli]

2. Bush is always the last to know. Doesn't matter, though, 'cause he'll just go along. nt

[atreides1]

6. The increase is for Iraqi security forces

Not US military forces.

"$1 billion to expand the size and accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces."

It's two different things.

[babylonsister]

7. Thanks; in my haste I didn't read that thoroughly. nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. I did the same thing

the first time I read it.

[rodeodance]

8. he was talking of IRAQI forces.

[Eugene]

3. All is going well. No need to change anything.

Rumsfeld has done a fantastic job.
The surge in Iraq violence is temporary.
We can trust Nouri al-Maliki.

Stay the curse course!

Whatever he's smoking, it's pretty powerful.

[JoFerret]

4. Stuck in Iraq

[Botany]

5. The man is nuttier than a squirrel turd.

[OhioChick]

10. The article has now changed to:

Bush: Commanders say Iraq troop level OK

[gratuitous]

11. Now he's not sure if we'll still be in Iraq in January 2009?

I seem to recall this past summer, during the "stay the course" media frenzy (which turned out to be the equivalent of a rabid chihuahua) that Bush said we'd be in Iraq, guaranteed, while he was still in office. Is he now a "cut-and-run" traitor, like he and his mouthpieces were calling us just a month or two ago?

Oops, forgot: IOKIYAR.

[brooklynite]

12. "What we can live with"?

The last time I checked, "I can live with that" means a condition you didn't want, that was imposed by someone or something else, that you'll nonetheless accept. It does not mean: "this is exactly what we asked for". Hopefully, the press will ask some of the Generals: "did you ask for this troop level, or are you accepting what you've been told you can have"?

[brentspeak]

13. Bush to troops: "Sorry, fellas - you're on your own. But hey, didja hear what Sen.Kerry said...?"