Don't say it folks...

Here is an excerpt of the chimpster's press conference.. Yes, I scratched my head at the chimpster...

Winning or losing in Iraq

JOURNALIST: Mr. President, less than two months ago, at the end of one of the bloodiest months in the war, you said, "Absolutely we're winning." Yesterday, you said, "We're not winning. We're not losing." Why did you drop your confident assertion about winning?

GEORGE W. BUSH: My comments -- the first comment was done in this spirit.[please...] I believe that we're going to win. I believe that -- and, by the way, if I didn't think that, I wouldn't have our troops there. That's what you've got to know.
We're going to succeed. My comments yesterday reflected the fact that we're not succeeding nearly as fast as I wanted when I said at the time and that conditions are tough in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad. And so we're conducting a review to make sure that our strategy helps us achieve that which I'm pretty confident we can do, and that is have a country which can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.

When I speak -- like right now, for example -- I'm speaking to the American people, of course, and I want them to know that I know how tough it is, but I also want them to know that I'm going to work with the military and the political leaders to develop a plan that will help us achieve the objective.[blah, blah, blah..]

And I want the enemy to understand that this is a tough task, but they can't run us out of the Middle East, that they can't intimidate America. They think they can. They think it's just a matter of time before America grows weary and leaves, abandons the people of Iraq, for example, and that's not going to happen.

I'm not going to speculate out loud about what I'm going to tell the nation, when I'm prepared to do so, about the way forward. I will tell you we're looking at all options. And one of those options, of course, is increasing more troops.

But in order to do so, there must be a specific mission that can be accomplished with more troops, and that's precisely what our commanders have said, as well as people who know a lot about military operations.

I'm often asked about public opinion. Of course I want public opinion to support the efforts. I understand that. But, Jim, I also understand the consequences of failure.

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