as an election issue it may well be approaching it’s expiration date. yes, folks, we’re going to be there a looooooong time. thanks in large part to madame speaker pelosi, majority leader reid, and a demoRATpublican bloc all working in unison.
Bush’s efforts to negotiate a long-term U.S-Iraq pact may remove troops as an ’08 election issue…
Camp Arifjan in the desert kingdom of Kuwait… he indicated that he was setting in motion policies that could dramatically affect the presidential race–and any decisions the next president makes in 2009.
In remarks to the traveling press, delivered from the Third Army operation command center here, Bush said that negotiations were about to begin on a long-term strategic partnership with the Iraqi government modeled on the accords the United States has with Kuwait and many other countries…
more below…
in a move to change the message from one of failure to one of success that will, no doubt, become the new mantra of the msm just in time for the 2009 conventions and election:
…he [chimpy] indicated that he was setting in motion policies that could dramatically affect the presidential race–and any decisions the next president makes in 2009…The target date for concluding the agreement is July, says Gen. Doug Lute, Bush’s Iraq coordinator in the White House…
nope, no politics here, uh huh…just exercising another priviledge bestowed on the unitary executive. UN approval isn’t even required. l wonder if malarki will have to pass it by the iraqis?
Most significant of all, the new partnership deal with Iraq, including a status of forces agreement that would then replace the existing Security Council mandate authorizing the presence of the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq, will become a sworn obligation for the next president…Last month, Sen. Hillary Clinton urged Bush not to commit to any such agreement without congressional approval. The president said nothing about that on Saturday, but Lute said last fall that the Iraqi agreement would not likely rise to the level of a formal treaty requiring Senate ratification. Even so, it would be difficult if not impossible for future presidents to unilaterally breach such a pact.
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The upshot is that the next president, Democrat or Republican, is likely to be handed a fait accompli that could well render moot his or her own elaborate withdrawal plans, especially the ones being considered by the two leading Democratic contenders, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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But Bush may have the upper hand now. The president touted the surge’s success on Saturday, and he reiterated that “long-term success will require active U.S. engagement that outlasts my presidency.” The “enduring relationship” he is building with Iraq, Bush added, “will have diplomatic, economic and security components–similar to relationships we have with Kuwait and other nations in this region and around the world.” Some of those relationships have now lasted decades. And as in Japan, Germany, Korea and Kuwait, they include a substantial troop presence. Far away in the Persian Gulf, Bush is creating facts on the ground that the next president may not be able to ignore.
so, by taking impeachment off the table, and acquiescing on everything the chimperor wants, the demoRATs have, once again, been out maneuvered by the Worst. President. Ever.
or , the more cynical view, this plays directly into the two leading candidates real plans and gives pre-emptive cover to whoever is elected to maintain the status quo because of diplomacy and protocol.
no mention will be made of all the treaties, covenants and conventions that chimpy’s unilaterally rescinded.
your call.
the BushCo™ legacy: freedom and democracy© on the march in the form of perpetual war.
