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FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK
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f.zibak@todayszaman.com
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Turkish Press Review
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Criticism of Bush's Strategy in Iraq Continues to Grow
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US President George W. Bush is facing strong opposition from within the US and abroad over his decision to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq. Whether new US troops will help the situation or add fuel to the fire of violence and sectarian conflict is debatable. One thing is certain, opposition is vocal and the commonly held view is that Bush' new plan to save Iraq will not be a remedy for the current situation.
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Vatan's Ruşen Çakır thinks that Bush's latest plan presents no original solutions to the problems in Iraq, stressing that the US failure in Iraq is evident. He accuses Bush of distracting the US public and trying to hand over this troublesome issue to his successor (possibly a Democrat). Çakır feels that Bush, who has proven to be a liar, poor-intentioned and clumsy, will instigate more conflict and destroy the last hopes in Iraq. He says that Bush wants the US public to believe that a US withdrawal from Iraq would be a complete disaster. He urges that Bush might seem right at first, insofar as sectarian conflict will increase in Iraq, some of Iraq's neighbors including Turkey might attempt to intervene, the al-Qaeda terror organization might find a new and secure base of operations, and the Shiites might strengthen under Iranian leadership. Çakır says we can count as many disaster scenarios as possible. According to him, the US will eventually have to withdraw from Iraq and the actual disaster will erupt then. Çakır concludes that the US should immediately withdraw from Iraq before more damage is done. Milliyet's Yasemin Çongar discusses whether Bush will decide to withdraw from Iraq if his latest strategy comes to naught. Looking at the people who are close to Bush, she says he will not withdraw from Iraq even if his plan fails. She talks about two scenarios. According to one, the sectarian conflict will continue in the central regions; this is the bad scenario. The second is Baghdad will be pacified and partial tranquility will be maintained with a Sunni-Shiite agreement for a share of the oil resources and power. Çongar says that both scenarios are based on downsizing the number of US soldiers to at least half the present numbers and maintaining the borders. Yeni Şafak's Taha Kıvanç does not think that Bush will decide to withdraw his troops from Iraq to end the conflict anytime soon. Referring to Bush's latest statements in which he admitted his mistakes in Iraq, Kıvanç comments that Bush is bouncing back with unnecessary vengeance. Interestingly, Kıvanç points to some information about Bush's thinking in reference to his mother Barbara Bush who talked about her son's angry behavior when defeated in a golf match. Kıvanç says that Bush is doing the same thing today and instead of taking constructive steps, he just continues to make more mistakes. "Rejection of defeat, this is Bush's problem. He is forcing his chances of winning and he hopes to win the game that he plays over US corpses by extending time," Kıvanç asserts. Zaman's Ali Aslan agrees with Kıvanç in that Bush is bouncing back with unnecessary vengeance. He thinks that Bush does not want to be recorded in history as the defeated commander-in-chief of the Iraq war. He says Bush did not listen to the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group but once again followed his own vision, with predictable results. Aslan comments that Bush could not even achieve his own ambitions and has even lost support from neocon backers who assert that Bush's chances of winning decreased since he could not fully apply their recommendations.
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| 16 January 2007, Tuesday |
| FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK |
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