(Getty photo by Win McNamee)
Terri Walsh kisses the casket of her son, Sgt. Justin Walsh, United States Marine Corps, during services at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Tuesday. Sgt. Walsh, from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, was wounded while defusing a bomb in Iraq. More U.S. troops have died in Iraq in October than in any other month of the year.
"We're making steady progress," .... "A free Iraq will mean a peaceful world. And it's very important for us to stay the course, and
we will stay the course." --- George W. Bush,
July 10, 2003 Some critics continue to assert that we have no plan in Iraq except to, "stay the course." If by "stay the course," they mean we will not allow the terrorists to break our will, they are right. If by "stay the course," they mean we will not permit al Qaeda to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban -- a safe haven for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on America -- they are right, as well. If by "stay the course" they mean that we're not learning from our experiences, or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then
they're flat wrong --- George W. Bush,
November 30, 2005 http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/22/bush-stay-the-course/">October 22, 2006, ABC's
This Week STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”
BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.
This man will occupy a very dark and horrid place in the course of history.