If President Bush seemed defensive during Monday’s news conference, no wonder. Each week in Iraq brings more of the same – more deaths, more chaos, more pressure on the pursestring.
The president is convinced that an open-ended military presence shows the world that the United States is committed to crushing terrorism at its roots. But Americans are increasingly abandoning that logic, realizing that until the U.S. invasion in 2003, terrorism’s roots certainly weren’t in Iraq.
During Monday’s news conference, the president said a U.S. pullout would embolden extremists and “would say we’ve abandoned our desire to change the conditions that create terror.” The U.S. military will not leave until the Iraqi government can sustain itself, he said.
“And if you believe that the job of the federal government is to secure this country, it’s really important for you to understand that success in Iraq is part of securing the country,” he said.
That’s a startling statement, since security in Iraq seems to be worsening.
Americans are wary. A New York Times/CBS News poll released this week shows that 51 percent of those surveyed saw no connection between the Iraq effort and the tamping down of global terror. It was 41 percent in June.
Conditions in Iraq are grim. Over the weekend, Sunni insurgents launched a sniper and mortar attack on Shiite pilgrims walking through religiously mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad. Twenty people died and another 300 were wounded.
Iraq also is struggling economically. Crude oil production remains 20 percent lower than before the U.S. invasion, and The Wall Street Journal reports Iraq is losing necessary managers and workers.
Congress has given President Bush a free hand in Iraq, but some are growing restive. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an outspoken war supporter, on Tuesday said the administration had misled the public into thinking the mission would be “some kind of day at the beach.” Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., recently called Iraq “a hopeless, winless situation,” and added, “I hope the president and his people are starting to ask themselves this question, that what is – what is the alternative? Are we going to put our troops in the middle of a civil war? Who are they going to fight?” Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., noted earlier this week that the cost for the Iraq deployment, once estimated at $30 billion, is on a path to exceed $500 billion.
No wonder so many Americans are anxious about this country’s mission in Iraq.
