Fourth-string White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe hosted a brief press gaggle today from Crawford Middle School. It was fairly mundane, except for this exchange.
Q: Is it still administration policy that the U.S. commitment in Iraq is not open-ended?
JOHNDROE: I think the President has made it clear that he eventually would like to see the United States in a different configuration in Iraq; there is no doubt about that. The surge was designed, as we have said repeatedly, to help bring security to Iraq. We’ve seen that there are signs of success on that front — the NIE even talked about that yesterday.
Really? Is that why the surge was designed? The White House has said this “repeatedly”?
I realize Johndroe isn’t used to handling these briefings, but he should at least try to tell the truth a little. The surge was not designed to bring security to Iraq; the surge was designed to give Iraq some breathing space in order to let political leaders make political progress on reconciliation.
Johndroe is, like his WH Communications Office brethren, trying to move the goalposts and hoping no one notices. Indeed, he appears to have thrown in “as we have said repeatedly” as a Fleischer-like way of saying anyone who disagrees with the assessment just isn’t paying attention.
Just the opposite is true.
As TP noted, the president made it pretty clear in January.
“When this happens, daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas. Most of Iraq’s Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace — and reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible.”
Around the same time, Tony Snow explained the same thing:
“Surge is not a term I’ve ever used. But the point is you’re trying to add strength to the forces in Iraq so that they’re going to be successful in taking out sectarian violence and also al Qaeda violence, so that you have the conditions under which people can pursue the important business of political reconciliation and economic development.”
And then, just three days ago, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said that “the whole premise of the surge was … to bring levels of violence down and keep them down so that there would be the time and space for political leadership to get on with the business of national reconciliation.”
This is what White House officials “have said repeatedly.”
Johndroe may have just been clueless today, but I think it’s just as likely the White House wants to shift the rules of the game. Something to keep an eye on.