Time for the Unthinkable?

Bush Said to Be Frustrated by Level of Public Support in Iraq

By THOM SHANKER and MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — President Bush made clear in a private meeting this week that he was concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government — and the Iraqi people — had not shown greater public support for the American mission, participants in the meeting said Tuesday.

Those who attended a Monday lunch at the Pentagon that included the president’s war cabinet and several outside experts said Mr. Bush carefully avoided expressing a clear personal view of the new prime minister of Iraq, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

But in what participants described as a telling line of questioning, Mr. Bush did ask each of the academic experts for their assessment of the prime minister’s effectiveness.

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally — that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,” said one person who attended the meeting. “The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.”

Another person who attended the session said he interpreted Mr. Bush’s comments less as an expression of frustration than as uncertainty over the prospects of the new Iraqi government. “He said he really didn’t quite have a sense yet of how effective the government was,” said this person, who, like several who discussed the session, agreed to speak only anonymously because it was a private lunch.

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd. “I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,” said another person who attended.

Yeah well George, you ain't the only one. I have long held to the belief that the Generals in Iraq and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeldt were on the right track, and that America's patience was necessary and justified, but I am beginning to wonder. Is it possible that Senator Joe "Plagiarizer" Biden is correct? Is it time to contemplate the unthinkable and consider a partitioning of Iraq?

The fact is, I don't know. It is becoming increasingly clear that no one has a good answer to the problem that Iraq has become. Clearly the Democrat plan of cut and run would be a disaster. Leaving a Iraq to fall into civil war would be an open invitation to the development of a terrorist state. That being said, we cannot go on indefinately imposing a system of government on the Iraqi people that they do not want, or are not willing to fight for.

I continue to hear from the Bush Administration that things are "improving" in Iraq, but I am not seeing any progress, and the march by 10,000 Shia in Bhagdad supporting the actions of Hizbollah really leads me to begin to question our approach.

I still haven't given up on the idea of a unified Iraq under some nominally democratic form of government, but I am beginning to wonder. I am not concerned that the Iraq war is somehow "distracting us from the war on terror," that is a bunch of Democrat non-sense, but I am concerned that the possibility of success in Iraq is being threatened by some questionable decision making on our part.

I have begun to wonder if we have all of the necessary people involved in our decision making process. To tell you the truth, this latest decision by the Bush Administration virtually to impose a futile ceasefire agreement on Israel has contributed a great deal to my growing doubts.

Full Story: Is Partitioning Iraq the Answer?

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