"The Decider" Seems To Have Decided

.... That He Doesn't Represent American Voters

It seems that President Bush has decided that the role of the office of the President of the United States is not to represent the interests of the American people but instead to do what "He" judges is right.

In light of this, it seems to be a propitious time for our constitutional lawyers to take a close look at Article Two of the US Constitution which defines the role of the office of the President as well as the guidelines for impeachment.

In November the American people spoke loud and clear that we don't want to "stay the course". We want the war in Iraq to end and end as soon as reasonably possible. No American wishes to simply abandon the Iraqi people especially not when current events portend a possible full blown civil war with Saudi Arabia intervening to protect Iraqi Sunnis from genocide. But the American public must question the reasons that we went to war in the first place, whether our presence in Iraq is justified and whether the loss of the lives of American and Allied service personnel and Iraqi civilians should continue.

Of course President Bush does not have to implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study group but it certainly seems that he has been pretty quick to publicly dismiss many of the ideas. To make statements to the effect that he heard "ideas that would lead to defeat" indicates that he is still living under the illusion that this war is winnable in the same way WWII was winnable. And while I cannot imagine having a rational discussion with the President of Iran that entertains hate mongers like David Duke, the Bush administration must face the geo-political and cultural realities of the region. US troops will not be stationed in Iraq forever and in the long run Arab & Kurd, Sunni & Shia, Iraqi, Iranian & Syrian will need to find their own way to co-exist.

President Bush needs to decide now if he is President of the United States of America or desires to be President of Iraq. And the American people need to decide if we want to leave that decision up to The Decider.

plk

Bush: I won't be rushed on Iraq on Yahoo! News
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_42


Summary:

President Bush said Wednesday he would "not be rushed" into a decision on a strategy change for Iraq, saying that in a round of consultations he heard both some interesting ideas and some "ideas that would lead to defeat." "And I reject those ideas," Bush said after meeting with top generals and Defense Department officials at the Pentagon. He said those ideas included "leaving before the job is done, ideas such as not helping this (Iraqi) government take the necessary and hard steps to be able to do its job."

Bush spoke with reporters after wrapping up a round of high-level talks on revising his Iraq war policy. Earlier he spoke by telephone with two Kurdish leaders in Iraq as part of what the White House called efforts to forge a "moderate bloc" behind the shaky central government in Baghdad.

Standing with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bush said he and the nation's top military commanders had "a very candid and fruitful discussion about how to secure this country and about how to win a war that we now find ourselves in."

Although the White House had initially suggested that Bush would deliver his speech on Iraq strategy before Christmas, he has decided to delay it until early next year.

Defending that decision, Bush said, "I will not be rushed into making a difficult decision ...

Joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates and outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Bush met with the military leaders and other members of his national security team at the Pentagon, where war commanders are calling for more U.S. trainers and equipment for beleaguered Iraqi forces.

He addressed some of his remarks to members of the nation's military, including some 140,000 now stationed in Iraq. "I appreciate their sacrifices, and I want them to know I'm focused on developing a strategy that will help them achieve their mission," the president said. "I know there is a lot of debate at home, and our troops pay attention to that debate," Bush said.

Bush said part of the reason for his putting off his speech to next year was to allow Gates to familiarize himself with the top defense job "and be part of this debate."

"At the appropriate time, I'll stand up in front of the nation and say, `here's where we're headed,'" Bush said.

Bush pledged anew to work with the Democratic-controlled Congress that convenes in January "to forge greater bipartisan consensus" on Iraq policy.

George Casey, the top general in Iraq, ask the administration to pour increased funding into more armored vehicles, body armor and other critical equipment for the Iraqis, said a defense specialist familiar with the meetings. The message to Bush, the defense specialist said, is that the U.S. cannot withdraw a substantial number of combat troops by early 2008, as suggested by the independent commission on Iraq, because the Iraqis will not be ready to assume control of their country.

Iraqi leaders, meanwhile, last month presented Bush with a plan for its troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year and that U.S. troops be shifted to the capital's periphery, The New York Times reported on its Web site Tuesday night.

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Anne Plummer Flaherty contributed to this report.

Summarized by Copernic Summarizer