Maybe Bush needs more thorough briefings

May 31, 2006

The war in [tag]Iraq[/tag], unfortunately, features daily [tag]violence [/tag]and bloodshed. I expect the [tag]president [/tag]to be [tag]informed[/tag], but it’s unreasonable to think that Bush will get briefed on every single [tag]incident[/tag]. There are, alas, just too many.

That said, the alleged [tag]massacre [/tag]in [tag]Haditha [/tag]was not just another routine incident in Iraq — and it’s hard to understand why it would take four months for [tag]Bush [/tag]to hear of it, not from Pentagon officials, but from reporters.

President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the White House said Tuesday.

Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied Tuesday: “When a Time reporter first made the call.”

Time magazine was first to report, in March, that the U.S. military was investigating a dozen Marines for possible war crimes in the November incident. The killings, which included women and children, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

According to the White House, after Time began asking questions, Stephen Hadley briefed [tag]Bush[/tag] on the incident and investigation into what occurred. This came four months after the event itself.

No matter how routine the violence, an incident in which several Marines stand accused of methodically killing [tag]unarmed [/tag][tag]Iraqi [/tag][tag]civilians[/tag], including [tag]children[/tag], in cold blood, is the kind of thing that might be of interest to the president, isn’t it?

Even putting aside the human element, Bush needed to know about Haditha, if for no other reason, because the alleged murders are poised to increase violence in the country.

“When these investigations come out, there’s going to be a firestorm,” said retired Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, formerly a top lawyer for the Marine Corps. “It will be worse than Abu Ghraib.”

For that matter, failing to keep Bush “in the loop” on these stories isn’t exactly a new problem. In 2004, the White House said Bush wasn’t aware of the reports of torture at Abu Ghraib until five months after the incidents were documented, and even then his knowledge came by way of news accounts, not military briefings.

First, for a guy who claims not to keep up with the traditional media, Bush seems to be getting quite a bit of important information from reporters. And second, if the president’s advisors aren’t keeping him informed about crises like Haditha and [tag]Abu Ghraib[/tag], what, exactly, are they covering in those military briefings?

Prioirity 1 Protect Bush’s bubble.
Proirity 2 Cut taxes for the obscenely wealthy
Priority 3 Do whatever Dobson wants today
Priorty 4 Everything else

  • It makes perfect sense though….
    Bush is only briefed on threats to him… the massacre was not of importantance to him politically until the press became aware of it, and spin needed to be generated.

    Massacre – no problem
    Reporting on Massacre – problem

    Wiretapping – no problem
    Reporting on Wiretapping – problem

    Torture – no problem
    Reporting on Torture – problem

    The pattern is obvious. The only things that need to be publicly addressed by the administration are those issues that have been reported that might be damaging.

  • This is the administration’s version of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The Chimp in Chief doesn’t want to hear any bad news and his yes-men don’t want to have to deliver it. That’s why it’s always “sunny times” and “last throes” for them. It’s the only way they keep the bubble from popping and the lies flowing freely. Reality bites. This isn’t just incompetence though, it’s willful, criminal neglect.

  • The real story to me isn’t the massacre itself – as horrible as it is, these things do happen in wartime – but the ongoing military coverups which do so much to destroy credibility. Since there was a coverup going on, and the incident was originally portrayed as just another roadside bombing, I wouldn’t expect Bush to have been extensively briefed about it. But the fact that the coverup isn’t being investigated seriously to me is extremely troubling.

  • A poorly informed president in times of peace (like Ronnie) is funny. A poorly informed commander-in-chief in times of war is outrageous.

    ITMFA. ITMFA. ITMFA. ITMFA. ITMFA. ITMFA.

  • Governor Gatling from “Benson”+Mayor Winston from “Spin City”+Ronald Reagan, post-1985+Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane= George W. Bush

  • Frak is right. The chimp doesn’t want his bubble penetrated. If he was a real president, he would demand to know about bad news coming down the pike, so that he could prepare for the firestorm.

    Does he want to know? Apparently not.

    Bush is probably punishing anyone who brings him bad news, so his handlers aren’t bringing any. I shudder to think what would happen if another terrorist attack happened here.

    I personally doubt if there will be one on his watch, because Bush is the best recruiter alquaeda has ever had. Bush’s war has destroyed much of our military might, and bankrupted our economy, but most importantly it has driven a huge wedge between moderate muslims and the west, and that wedge will be there for decades.

  • But the fact that the coverup isn’t being investigated seriously to me is extremely troubling.

    Why do you think that? There’s a separate investigation just into the cover-up.

  • Why do you think that? There’s a separate investigation just into the cover-up.

    I’m basing it off of this report on Americablog which contains this quote “Pentagon investigations into the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians are focused on about a dozen enlisted Marines and do not target their commanding officers, the lawyer for one of the officers said Tuesday” and this commentary: “Yes we do need to find out, but we won’t. Because General Pace and all of his officer flunkies won’t be touched by this investigation – it’s all the enlisted men’s fault, per Bush and Pace, it always is.”

    If there is now a separate investigation into the coveriup – and that investigation is allowed to go “right up the chain of command” as Murtha maintains, that’s good to know.

  • But the fact that the coverup isn’t being investigated seriously to me is extremely troubling.

    Why do you think that? There’s a separate investigation just into the cover-up.

    Comment by Anderson — 5/31/2006 @ 12:03 pm

    Because the investigations that are being done these days, if they are done at all, are, shall we say, somewhat biased towards the people in charge.

    Plus, we’re still waiting for that second half of the 9-11 investigation that has been put on hold for a few years now by Pat Roberts.

    And, we’re still waiting for the investigation into the Enron energy policy meetings that took place between Cheney and a bunch of industry executives.

    And, we’re still waiting for any sort of investigation into the dealings of Tom Delay with regards to campaign finance abuse.

    And, we’re still waiting for any sort of investigation into the White House letting an uncredentialed pseudo press person (who just happens to be a gay hooker in his spare time) into the White House on a day pass every day for a few years.

    And, we’re still waiting for any sort of formal investigation into the abuses of the Patriot Act that this administration has engaged in for years.

    As well as a host of other things that I quite frankly can’t be bothered to detail right here, since those of us on the Left that have been paying attention have been screaming at the rest of you to check into this crap since before Putsch stole the White House the first time, and most everybody else laughed at how tightly our tinfoil helmets must have been that day.

    All I’m saying is that some of us feel that we would have to examine the evidence in an extremely skeptical light, should any such investigation be considered. And that these clowns saying they’re pursuing an investigation is not building confidence that we will get to the bottom of the matter, or even that an investigation is actually taking place.

  • “An incident in which several Marines stand accused of methodically killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, including children, in cold blood, is the kind of thing that might be of interest to the president, isn’t it?

    Not if he’s his mother’s son:

    “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

    So says Momma Bush.

  • I’m long past concern over things Bush isn’t told or is told long after the fact. By now, I think it”s obvious that there is no point in telling him ANYTHING.

    If Bush had been a hotshot in the Third Reich, he would have been von Ribbentrop. Or Eva Braun,

  • AmericaBlog is inaccurate. The investigation of the shootings probably doesn’t address officers who weren’t there, for obvious reasons, but there is indeed a separate cover-up investigation.

    Just scroll down Gary Farber’s blog for the Haditha posts, he’s all over it.

    I give the military investigators a little more credit on this incident. There are all kinds of reasons why Abu Ghraib was whitewashed, not least the CIA involvement. (Recall that JAG’s have been shining lights in the whole Gitmo/torture thang.) Of course, I am not unprepared to be proved wrong.

  • Although it may be quite obvious that the ground-personnel who actually committed these atrocities (violations of the Geneva Conventions, by the way—at least until Cheney convinces Bush to withdraw from those accords as well), any form of coverup whatsoever by members of the officer corps—up to and including general staff officers—establishes “those with rank” as accessories to the atrocities themselves. remember that the Nuremburgs included trials for “crimes against humanity” of newspaper/periodical publishers, industrial leaders, commerce officials, and the like. There is clear precedent for holding “those in command” (both military and civilian) criminally liable for those under their respective commands—and the international community should push relentlessly to bring these investigations—and the subsequent prosecutions—into the judicial sphere.

    Bush organized his “coalition of the willing.” The Hague; the EU; the UN could do the same thing—and they could back the effort up with punitive actions that would, in short order, bring this current administration to its knees.

    Bush will not listen; neither will his cronies. Maybe it’s time we started filing our grievances with the international community—it’s pretty obvious that “both sides of the aisle” in Washington (with the exception of the very few such as John Murtha) have not a single pair of cojones amongst them to properly deal with this particular issue—and however many more issues that have yet to be reported….

  • I wonder how he was informed. “Incidently, Mr. President…” Incurious George, always the last to know – and likes it that way.

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