President Bush's Address Leaves Ambiguity About Iraq Withdrawal

In the presidential address on Thursday September 13, President Bush announced there will be some troop removals from Iraq. However, he also said that the United States will continue to be involved there for a few years at least. It is strange that after the troop surge was not as effective as the white house had said it would be the president still is saying it was very successful.

The democrats quickly responded to the president's speech, saying they don't think it was ever a good idea to go into Iraq and that it took too many troops away from going after the real terrorists like Osama bin laden. They also said that they didn't think that American lives should be given for the United States to be involved in another country's civil war.

The democrats also stated in their response that they have outlined a plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. While both sides of the debate strongly believe they are right, most people don't really know what we should do to solve the problem of when/how to remove troops from Iraq. Most Americans do agree that the troops should be brought back though, something which the president disagrees with.

President Bush still seems to think that his plan will work and the situation in Iraq will be improved and people will remember him for being able to go against what the country thought and sticking with it until his plan worked. The majority of Americans have different opinions though and think that the president's plan will just get us more stuck in this war that most Americans don't support. If the president is right and his plan works he will be remembered for his persistence, if his plan fails he will be remembered for his stubbornness.

Either way the majority of American public does not currently support the president for keeping troops in Iraq and he has decided not to back down because of the lack of support and instead to continue to do what he has wanted to all along. The people will choose a new president in a little over a year and they will most likely have an opinion on the war that is more similar to that of the majority of the people and the troops will possibly be removed then or a new strategy may be taken to end the war. Until then, President Bush has made it clear that he is going to continue to do what he thinks is right and not let the country effect his decisions.