This, remember, is the guy who insisted that he was always "listening to the recommendations of the commanders on the ground."The president announced the surge decision Jan. 10, 2007. Five more brigades would go to Baghdad; 4,000 Marines would head to Anbar province.
The next morning, he went to Fort Benning, Ga., to address military personnel and their families. His decision had been opposed by Casey and Abizaid, his military commanders in Iraq. Pace and the Joint Chiefs, his top military advisers, had suggested a smaller increase, if any at all. Schoomaker, the Army chief, had made it clear that the five brigades didn't really exist under the Army's current policy of 12-month rotations. But on this morning, the president delivered his own version of history.
"The commanders on the ground in Iraq, people who I listen to -- by the way, that's what you want your commander-in-chief to do. You don't want decisions being made based upon politics or focus groups or political polls. You want your military decisions being made by military experts. They analyzed the plan, and they said to me and to the Iraqi government: 'This won't work unless we help them. There needs to be a bigger presence.' "
Bush went on, "And so our commanders looked at the plan and said, 'Mr. President, it's not going to work until -- unless we support -- provide more troops.' "
Only he wasn't.
Read the details in Woodward's snippet.
5 comments:
and yet people will believe mccain, who voted with bush at least 90 percent of the time when he says he represents real change.
could it be that the "change" he represents is worse than what we have right now? maybe he believes that bush did not go far enough?
i think so.
John K: Bush did not lie according to Bing West. Another author who has also recently written on the same subject. Whine louder, you are slipping in the polls. LOL LOL Remember left wing kooks, Hussein Obama said the surge in Iraq worked.
John K: LOL LOL LOL Biden is one funny fellow. Denying he ever wanted to partition Iraq into three sections. Said that on the Sunday morning news shows. LMAO Get out in front of the parade lefties. Forget all about Gen Betrayus. Biden never said that. LMAO
John K: Olbermann and Matthews removed from live political events. First Cullen, now this. LOL LOL LOL LOL LMAO MSNBC the worst person in the world!
Bob Woodward can go stuff it. The surge helped give the Iraqi people the strength to take back their country, and the world is much better off because of it. Thank God Bob can report on this as something Bush didn't do, because if he did follow these alleged suggestions, Mookie would still have a hold on southern Iraq and Al-Qaeda would still be blowing up Iraqi men, women, and children from Fallujah to Al-Qaiam in Anbar Province.
The surge gave the opportunity for the Iraqi people to rise up (something we should have done all the way back to 1991). We made right with the ghosts of our pasts after the first Gulf War by standing beside the Iraqi people this time, and not abandoning them for a few percentage points in the polls.
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