Can President Bush Regain His Credibility on Iraq?
“I sent American troops to Iraq to defend our security, not to stay as an occupying power. I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way. As they do, Iraqis can be certain a free Iraq will always have a friend in the United States of America.” With these words, President George W. Bush ended an address last Monday evening to students and faculty of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It was the first of what the White House announced would be a weekly Presidential update on progress in Iraq. With his approval ratings dropping at home and insurgency rising in Iraq, President George W. Bush has begun a public relations campaign to shore up confidence in his leadership and boost the morale of American forces serving in that troubled country. The goal, he told the military brass at Carlisle, was to permit Iraqis to achieve stability and self-rule and to assure the world that the
