{"id":218,"date":"2007-01-03T06:29:11","date_gmt":"2007-01-03T11:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=218"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:02:32","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:02:32","slug":"bi-partisan-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Bi-Partisan Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>George W<\/title>George W. Bush has an Op-Ed&#8211;&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/users1.wsj.com\/lmda\/do\/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&#038;url=http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB116778526385965459.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries\">What  the Congress Can Do for America<\/a>&#8220;&#8211;in today&#8217;s <em>Wall Street Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The essay is a plea for a level of bi-partisan cooperation and common ground  that will preserve some relevance for Bush presidency.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I will have the privilege of working with [the 110th Congress] for the  \tnext two years &#8212; <strong>one quarter of my presidency, plenty of time to  \taccomplish important things<\/strong> for the American people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It is also a preview of some domestic economic policy themes that will likely  be featured in Bush&#8217;s 2007 State of the Union address (spending restraint and  entitlement reform; no new taxes).<\/p>\n<p>The missive is also clearly designed to make the case for a military &#8220;surge&#8221;  in Iraq:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the days ahead, I will be addressing our nation about <strong>a new  \tstrategy<\/strong> to <strong>help the Iraqi people gain control of the security  \tsituation<\/strong> and hasten the day when the Iraqi government gains full  \tcontrol over its affairs. Ultimately, Iraqis must resolve the most pressing  \tissues facing them. We can&#8217;t do it for them.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>we can help Iraq defeat the extremists inside and outside of Iraq<\/strong>  \t&#8212; and we can help provide <strong>the necessary breathing space for this young  \tgovernment<\/strong> to meet its responsibilities. If democracy fails and the  \textremists prevail in Iraq, America&#8217;s enemies will be stronger, more lethal,  \tand emboldened by our defeat. Leaders in both parties understand the stakes  \tin this struggle. <strong>We now have the opportunity to build a bipartisan  \tconsensus to fight and win the war<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The entire emphasis of the &#8220;new strategy&#8221; is on the so-called security front.\u00c2\u00a0  No new formula for national reconciliation, etc. in the political domain.\u00c2\u00a0  This is about boots on the ground and&#8211;I suspect&#8211;aggressive counter-insurgency  that recalls the anti-Baathist <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Military_operations_of_the_Iraq_War\"> military operations<\/a> from the summer and early fall of 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Also, note well: &#8220;defeat the extremists inside <em>and outside<\/em> <em>of Iraq<\/em>.&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0  Which extremists &#8220;outside of Iraq&#8221; does Bush have in mind?\u00c2\u00a0 Extremists in  Syria? Iran?<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Mandate for War?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now, according to Bush, in light of the mid-term election victories by the  Democrats there is an &#8220;opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus to fight and  win the war.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bush may be misreading the implicit <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=175\">message of the election<\/a>,  but he is <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=172\">not necessarily  misreading the Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There will be some bi-partisan resistance.\u00c2\u00a0 2008 Democratic Presidential  hopeful John Edwards looks set, for now, to run Left of Hillary on Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0  He has <a href=\"http:\/\/today.reuters.com\/news\/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&#038;storyID=2007-01-01T080750Z_01_N31302200_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-POLITICS.xml&#038;WTmodLoc=PolNewsHome_C1_[Feed]-8\"> denounced the surge and dubbed it the &#8220;McCain Doctrine.&#8221;<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/12\/31\/AR2006123100948.html\"> some in the GOP<\/a> will balk.<\/p>\n<p>But one should not underestimate the level of &#8220;bi-partisan&#8221; support for a  pro-Shiite military surge that aims to return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=217\">original Right Zionist  vision for post-invasion Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Right Zionists like Lieberman and McCain will be <a href=\"http:\/\/frontpagemagazine.com\/Articles\/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26255\">touted  as &#8220;centrists&#8221; and &#8220;moderates&#8221;<\/a>, even as they gladly inherit the war&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/12\/28\/AR2006122801055.html\">surge  and all<\/a>&#8211;from President Bush.<\/p>\n<p>Dangerous times, these.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George WGeorge W. Bush has an Op-Ed&#8211;&#8220;What the Congress Can Do for America&#8220;&#8211;in today&#8217;s Wall Street Journal. The essay is a plea for a level of bi-partisan cooperation and common ground that will preserve some relevance for Bush presidency. I will have the privilege of working with [the 110th Congress] for the next two years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,3,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}