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Watching Bush Change Course
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"Autonomous regions" are bad, but "Federalism" is ok.
The president dismissed the notion of a partition, in which Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds would be geographically split with oil revenues paying the costs of running three separate autonomous regions.
"I don't think that's the right way to go. I think that'll increase sectarian violence. I think that'll make it more dangerous and so does Prime Minister Maliki," Bush said. "Federalism is one thing, in other words, giving a pass between regional government and central government. But dividing and basically saying, 'There will be three autonomous regions,' will create not only a situation where Sunnis and Sunni nations and Sunni radicals will be competing against Shia radicals but the Kurds will then create problems for Turkey and Syria. And you have got a bigger mess than we have at this point in time."
—Bush, October 16, 2006, Associated Press
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Not thinking about changing
As a matter of fact, we will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course.
—Bush, July 11, 2006.
Thinking about changing
Senator Warner said, if the plan isn't working, adjust. I agree completely. ... Stay the course means keep doing what you're doing. My attitude is, don't do what you're doing if it's not working; change.
—Bush, October 11, 2006.
Not happy with being told to change
And I appreciate Jimmy Baker willingness to -- he and Lee Hamilton are putting this -- have got a group they put together that I think was Congressman Wolf's suggestion -- or passing the law. We supported the idea. I think it's good to have some of our elder statesmen -- I hate to call Baker an elder statesmen -- but to go over there and take a look, and to come back and make recommendations. Somebody said he said, well, you know, cut-and-run isn't working. That's not our policy. Our policy is to help this country succeed, because I understand the stakes. I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes about what life is like in the Middle East.
And I look forward to listening how -- what Jimmy Baker and Lee Hamilton say about how to get the job -- I appreciate them working on this issue because I think they understand what I know, and the stakes are high.
—Bush, October 11, 2006.
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http://zfacts.com/p/520.html | 01/18/12 07:20 GMT
Modified: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:12:07 GMT
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