The Nation: “The war in Iraq has lasted three days longer than US involvement in World War II…We've been in Iraq one thousand, two hundred and forty-seven days—and still the Administration has no exit strategy, no plan for victory and no clue what it is doing.”
Watch the video of today's White House press conference…
Bush: “The strategy is to help the Iraqi people achieve the objectives and dreams which is a democratic society. That's the strategy. The tactics — now — either you say yes it's important we stay there and get it done or we leave. We're not leaving so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake. It would send an unbelievably you know terrible signal to reformers across the region. It would say we've abandoned our desire to change the conditions that create terror.”
Meanwhile, other Republicans have differing opinions:
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): “The Iraqi people have already made some decisions here. We, in fact, are in probably a low-grade — maybe a very defined — civil war. You've got corruption. Everywhere. As bad as it's ever been. You've got uncontrollables that we can't control. We can't deal with. Iran probably has more influence in Iraq than we do at this point.”
Bush also said today that Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11, though in the weeks leading up to the war that was not necessarily the case.
Democracy is on the march!
(screencap via wonkette)
