Oct. 24, 2006
 
EDITORIAL: Overhaul or Tweaking, Just Fix It
 
By Dale McFeatters
Scripps Howard News Service
 
Depending on who is doing the describing, the White House is or is not considering a significant change of strategy in Iraq following two days of meetings between President Bush and his top military and national-security advisers.
 
A story in Sunday's New York Times tended to indicate that there was a change in the works, with the administration drafting an extensive and specific timetable for the Iraqi government to achieve certain political, economic and military benchmarks. The plan was said to include rewards and penalties for the Iraqis.
 
But on Monday, White House spokesmen discounted the story. Press secretary Tony Snow denied any change in overall strategy -- "nothing dramatically new going on" -- although he did disclose that the president has not used the phrase "stay the course" since August.
 
The phrase was excised from the White House vocabulary, he said, because it gave the wrong impression of an Iraq policy that is "dynamic" and continually being adjusted to meet changing requirements.
 
Whatever, as the kids would say.
 
The fact is, there is a timetable for the Bush administration and the Iraqi government, the American public's growing lack of patience with the war, and that timetable is likely to be accelerated after the congressional elections.
 
The administration is right that specific timetables for an American withdrawal, what Snow called a "drop-dead date," or drawdown would encourage the insurgents. And the Iraqi government is almost desperately urging us to stay.
 
But whether it is called a complete change of strategy or just adjustments to the existing one, something needs to be done because whatever it is we're doing now isn't working.
 
Contact Dale McFeatters at McFeattersD@)SHNS.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com