Maureen Dowd squashes Chimp's rationale about Iraq exit "deadlines"

[npincus]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/opinion/20dowd.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists

This one's a few days old- but Maureen Dowd really zings the Chimp on his mantra about not setting deadlines for troop withdrawal.

I would like a reporter to preface the question, "Mr. President, why can't you set a deadline for troop withdrawal since you began the war on an artificial deadline,.... (see below)" at the next live press conference.


"W. says he can't set a deadline to bring the troops home. But he started the war on an artificial deadline; he declared a "Mission Accomplished" end to major hostilities on an artificial deadline; he was inflexible on deadlines for handing over Iraqi sovereignty and holding elections. And he tried to force the Iraqis to produce a constitution on his deadline when the squabbling politicians of the ethnic and religious factions hadn't even reached consensus on little things like "Do we want one country?""

[kentuck]

1. Yes. We should have a deadline and Democrats should call for one...

If they show they are making any progress at the time of the deadline, then we should withdraw.

[cliss]

2. Oh, I can think of several deadlines Bush gave

during the run-up to war. Remember the threats he posed to the weapons inspectors? He gave them a certain amount of time to finish their job.

When time was running out, remember the Deadline he gave Saddam? He gave him "48 hours to get out of Iraq", or else.

Bush knows ALL ABOUT DEADLINES. When they're in his favor, that is.

[xxqqqzme]

3. let us not forget

that the original reason, even B4 the WMDs BS, was that saddam had violated all those UN resolutions. I remember thinking, then I guess we better invade Israel. Israel has violated like 8X the UN resolutions that Iraq had.

[Supersedeas]

4. some deadlines have political convenience...