President Bush is no longer staying the course in Iraq. Well, actually he recently admitted he never really was - "stay the course". He says he was adapting and changing. I'm sure that "stay the course", if he had ever used it, would have been easier for us to understand than adapting and changing - like attacking Iraq for their weapons of mass destruction was more easily comprehended by Joe Sixpack than the more complicated actual reasons we attacked.
President Bush is changing plans. He's setting milestones for the Iraqi's and proclaiming his patience is not infinite. It's about time Mr. Bush decided to join us all in realizing Iraq is a floundering effort at best.
If this new President Bush had shown up in May of 2005, then November 7, 2006 would not hold such dismal prospects for a number of Republicans. Instead, on May 31, 2005, the talking points were recycled starting with this puffery from Vice President Cheney:
I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
http://www.cnn.com/...
How can Rove and crew have gone so tone deaf. Everyone is now aware of the depth of the Bush administration's incompetence. No one wants a new plan from Mr. Bush. We want the President of the United States to assure us that he knows why we are failing in Iraq. We want him to explain the causes of the failure - not because we don't know, but because we don't believe he knows.
So Mr. President the time has come for you to do something we all know you are incapable of - find out why you have failed. Hold someone accountable besides yourself because we know that is just your way of saying no one will be held accountable. Tell us who will be replacing those accountable for this failure and how they may be able to get us back on the right track.
Mr. President! Try competence instead of politics this time.
Give those men, boys, women and girls fighting in Iraq a chance for success.
Give the Iraqis a reason for hope.
Give America back some sense of self respect.