President Bush warned Americans on Wednesday that the war in Iraq would require “difficult choices and additional sacrifices” in the coming year, but he firmly rejected the notion that the war could not be won and vowed that the United States would not be “run out of the Middle East” by extremists and radicals....
....But after a month in which he has been under pressure to change course in Iraq — from Democrats who want a gradual withdrawal of troops and from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report implied that he should reframe his goals away from democracy toward mere stability — the president showed no indication that he was inclined to change goals or pull out of Iraq.
“Victory in Iraq is achievable,” Mr. Bush said, addressing reporters in the ornate Indian Treaty Room across the street from the White House, in a historic office building once used by the Navy. He added, “Our goal remains a free and democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.”
Mr. Bush also used the news conference to confirm his plans, disclosed Tuesday in an interview with The Washington Post, to propose an increase in the permanent size of both the Army and the Marines. He called the global campaign against terrorism “the calling of our generation,” and he said the military needed to be beefed up to fight it....
Did you see or hear anything different in this selection from the news conference? At the holiday season, people might not want to talk about war. However, our military continues to fight, get wounded, die, and see unspeakable horror in Iraq. Families and friends worry every minute of every single day about their family members and friends in Iraq, but Bush must go to Crawford. Is Bush working every single minute to end this war and bring our troops home? I don't think so.