NY Times: Bush Plan for Iraq Requests More Troops and More Jobs

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/world/middleeast/07prexy.html

Bush Plan for Iraq Requests More Troops and More Jobs

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 7, 2007

snip//

A crucial element of the plan would include more than doubling the State Department’s reconstruction efforts throughout the country, an initiative intended by the administration to signal that the new strategy would emphasize rebuilding as much fighting.

But previous American reconstruction efforts in Iraq have failed to translate into support from the Iraqi population, and some Republicans as well as the new Democratic leadership in Congress have questioned whether a troop increase would do more than postpone the inevitable and precarious moment when Iraqi forces have to stand on their own.

snip//

The officials would not say specifically whether the American troop increase would be carried out if the Iraqis failed to make good on their commitment to add to their own ranks, but they emphasized that the American influx could be re-evaluated at any point.

The American officials who described the plan included some who said they were increasingly concerned about Mr. Maliki’s intentions and his ability to deliver. They said senior Bush administration officials had been deeply disturbed by accounts from witnesses to last Saturday’s hanging of Saddam Hussein, who said they believed that guards involved in carrying out the execution were linked to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that is headed by Moktada al-Sadr, whose name some of the executioners shouted while Mr. Hussein stood on the gallows.

“If that’s an indication of how Maliki is operating these days, we’ve got a deeper problem with the bigger effort,” said one official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing internal administration deliberations over a strategy that Mr. Bush has not yet publicly announced.

The White House has refused to talk publicly about any of the decisions that Mr. Bush has made about his plan, which is tentatively entitled “A New Way Forward.” Even though speechwriters are already drafting Mr. Bush’s comments, several of the crucial elements are not finalized, officials warned. That apparently includes the exact amounts of money Mr. Bush will ask of Congress to finance the jobs program, or a longer-term job-training effort that will also be part of the strategy.

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[acmavm]

1. Doesn't it seem like bush** job training program for Americans

seems to involve fighting in his endless war while (and goodness only knows we owe to to them) the real jobs programs that he's interested in are for the Iraqi people.

I wonder if it's ever going to dawn on Commander Chucklenuts that he'd damn well start doing something for the people who have to pay for his wars because the people who profit from them sure as hell ain't gonna kick in anything. For them, profit is the only thing they're interested in.

I just wonder what the hell kind of jobs program can be effective in a country who's infrastructure has been bombed out of existence.

[babylonsister]

2. I think he's forgotten about Americans completely and is only paying

lip service to Iraqis. Seems to me his abiding concern has been and will always be what he and his war cronies are stuffing in their pockets.

[az chela]

4. And that ladies and gentlemen is the truth!!!!!!!!!!

[az chela]

3. Lets hope that bush can be stopped on all fronts

I suggest a gag and a straight jacket