Editorial: The possibility of peace
The Collegian denounces the latest plans for Iraq

March 21, 2007

This past Monday, a day before the four year anniversary of U.S. led forces invading Iraq, President Bush delivered a brief speech at the White House asking for our patience and warning against the temptation to pack up and go home. Bush stated that a “contagion of violence” could possibly “engulf the region” should the troops be removed prematurely. The speech came in the center of an intense face-off with the Democratic-controlled Congress over the constitutional balance of power during the war. The House is set to vote Thursday on a Democratic proposal to attach conditions to the president’s $100 million war financing package that would require American combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq next year, which Bush believes would undercut the troops and aid the insurgents.

Bush argued that it was the responsibility of Congress to support the troops that are already there. Additionally, he believes that he alone has the authority to decide the strategy and the timetable for adding or withdrawing troops and that “the new strategy will need more time to take effect.” He went on to challenge Congress to send him a war funding bill, and reminded them that “they have a responsibility to pass a clean bill that does not use funding for our troops as leverage to get special interest spending for their districts. And they have a responsibility to get this bill to my desk without strings and without delay.”

“There’s been good progress,” said Bush as he stood beneath a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt posed as a Rough Rider. “There’s a lot more work to be done, and Iraq’s leaders must continue to work to reach the benchmarks they have set forward.” Furthermore, he noted that four years later the world is rid of Hussein and the Iraqi voters now boast a democratically elected government.

As the war enters its fifth year, the public strongly oppose the war in Iraq (63 percent, according to a March 9 CNN Poll). Additionally, Bush’s approval rating stands near his all-time low (60 percent, according to Newsweek). “I’m grateful to our servicemen and women for all they’ve done for the honor they’ve brought to their uniform and to their country,” Bush said.

In order to stop much of the bloodshed, Bush has ordered roughly 30,000 more combat and support troops to enter Iraq in hope of stabilizing Baghdad.

He stated, “Until Baghdad’s citizens feel secure in their own homes and neighborhoods, it will be difficult for Iraqis to make further progress toward political reconciliation or economic rebuilding, steps necessary for Iraq to build a democratic society.”

In response to President Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “The American people have lost confidence in President Bush’s plan for a war without end in Iraq. That failed approach has been rejected by the voters in our nation, and it will be rejected by the Congress.”

The Collegian, as a newspaper staff and as Americans, are strongly opposed to President Bush’s battle plans that deal with Iraq, a situation that has now lasted four years. Back in the early months of the war, Bush stated that he would spread democracy throughout the Middle East following the elimination of Hussein. However, during his speech this Monday, the regional effects of the war were only mentioned when he stated that, “If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could engulf the entire country; in time, this violence could engulf the region.” With Bush committing more troops to an indefinite civil war with the approval of Senate Republicans, we feel that it would be in our best interest to pull our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible. It seems as if after four years of failure his only answer is to continue doing more of the same, which can only produce the same result: failure. “There will be good days, and there will be bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds,” Bush claims, but statements like that leave us with nothing but feelings of uncertainty, stress and hopelessness due to the unrelenting violence overseas. It has reached the point where this war can only be settled politically by way of Iraqi factions settling their differences.