Reading Between the Lines
Why would the President push back previously announced plans to outline his shift of Iraq strategy by Christmas?
President Bush on Tuesday put off until early next month announcing a new approach to the Iraq war. “It only makes sense for the president to take whatever time he needs to have confidence in the course that he will put forward before the American people,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The White House initially indicated Bush would deliver the speech before Christmas.
While administration officials said Bush had largely decided on where he wants to go in terms of a new policy, he gave no public hint of his plan at a meeting with the country’s Sunni vice president.
“Our objective is to help the Iraqi government deal with the extremists and the killers, and support the vast majority of Iraqis who are reasonable, who want peace,” Bush said after an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with Tariq al-Hashemi.
“…[T]he extremists and the killers…the vast majority of Iraqis who are reasonable, who want peace…”; now maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part, but it sounds to me like he’s talking about the recent news accounts of a new governmental alliance aiming to isolate Sadr. Could the delay be aimed at shoring up support for this alliance?
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it is, unless shown otherwise…
Emminently logical.