US press mulls Bush's Iraq plan

Liberal newspaper editorials in the US have reacted to President Bush's speech on Iraq's future with regret that he admits no errors since the start of the occupation and concern that he is not doing enough to involve other states.

For supporters of the president, however, it is a sober, realistic speech designed to silence Mr Bush's critics with a clear vision for Iraq's future.

"If the so-called world community was waiting for an invitation on a silver platter to help rebuild Iraq, it got it yesterday..." writes the Boston Herald.

"In other words, Bush is proposing to do everything Democrats and sometime foreign allies have said they wanted him to do in Iraq all along...

This... is Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare New York Post

"By calling the United Nations and Democrats on their rhetoric, Bush has sent this clear message: It's time to put up or shut up."

The paper adds that it is "so much easier to harp about Bush's mishandling of Iraq than to participate in freeing it".

The New York Post hails the Bush plan for Iraqi democracy as "not just a way forward for Iraq but for the US-led global War on Terror" and predicts that time is running out for the "thugocracies that dominate the region".

"This, of course, is Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare," the tabloid writes

"Which is exactly why America can't blink at this critical moment."

Too little

For the New York Times, the speech is short on detail.

"President Bush needs to come up with a more specific plan in Iraq, to stop listing the things we already knew needed to be done and to explain how he intends to do them," it writes.

A determined insurgency of uncertain form and with unknown support still stands in the way USA Today

It dismisses Mr Bush's "five steps" as "merely a recitation of the tasks ahead".

"Mr Bush is never going to admit any shortcomings, much less failure," the paper writes but adds that what it sees as a lack of vision for Iraq's future is the real problem:

"Mr Bush has yet to come up with a realistic way to internationalise the military operation and to get Iraq's political groups beyond their current game of jockeying for power and into a real process of drafting a workable constitution."

The Washington Post is not convinced the Bush plan is "vigorous enough to turn the situation around".

It, too, calls on the president to "acknowledge what has gone wrong in the past year and how it can be corrected".

In sum, it calls for "bolder action and more honest words" to make Iraq a success.

Uncertain future

USA Today welcomes the speech as "the most detailed and convincing description of the president's Iraq policy to date" but speculates that his plans might be frustrated by Iraqi militants.

"Bush knows where he wants to go," it writes.

"A determined insurgency of uncertain form and with unknown support still stands in the way."