The origins of Bush’s escalation plan

January 21, 2007

On January 11, in a speech to U.S. troops at Fort Benning, Bush explained the origins of his escalation plan for Iraq:

“The [Iraqi] Prime Minister came and said, look, I understand we’ve got to do something about this violence, and here is what I suggest we do. Our commanders looked at it, helped fine-tune it so it would work….

“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. And 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….

“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.’ And so last night I told the country that I’ve committed an additional — a little over 20,000 more troops, five brigades of which will be in Baghdad.”

In other words, to hear the president tell it, Maliki came up with the idea, which U.S. commanders helped shape. We know Bush was misstating the truth about U.S. commanders — generals who had been on the ground in Iraq during the past year had favored a substantially smaller force — and now we also know that Bush was misstating the truth about Maliki.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a surprise for President Bush when they sat down with their aides in the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let Iraqis take over security in the strife-torn capital. Maliki said he did not want any more U.S. troops at all, just more authority.

The president listened intently to the unexpected proposal at their Nov. 30 meeting, according to accounts from several administration officials. Bush seemed impressed that Maliki had taken the initiative, but it did not take him long to reject the idea.

Remember, back in 2004, when Bush would complain about “revisionist historians”?

Well Bush was taking his marching orders from someone, but it wasn’t the generals or Maliki. It is Cheney who has crawled up Bush’s ass and refused to die.

  • “Revisionist historian” seems awfully polite. What we have is a president who has lied, misled and distored to the point that nothing he says can be believed. The only difference between this BS and previous BS is that this load is fresher.

  • And a week or so after that bout of lying Maliki publicly stated his forces just need proper equipment and weapons.

    Any one care to place odds on the PM telling “The Liberators” to get the hell out before 2008?

  • Bush is beginning the “blame the Iraqi” pitch which will save his name in history. If the escalation fails, it’s the Iraqi fault, not his. His mama should have made him clean up his own messes and done all of us a favor.

  • tAiO has the vital clue. Maliki said he wanted he wanted more guns to secure Baghdad. Bush asssumed that meant Maliki wanted American soldiers to be holding them. There’s listening to words and then there’s actually hearing what’s said.

  • We now have a dictator in the White House. He is looking more and more like the dictator he had removed from Iraq.

  • ml
    How Much do you wanna bet the “BLAME THE IRAQI” pitch was
    another fine product from KARLROVE-CO.

    Wait… Cathie KL
    Who do you mean? Bush OR Cheney???

  • Cheney-Bush’s desire to stay in Iraq is motivated by oil. The war is just a means to continue after the oil. They allowed Bin Ladin to escape to continue, and expand the war to Iraq.

    Until we acknowledge that we are after the oil, we won’t leave Iraq. It’s all a distraction, all the talking heads talking about the “dire consequences” of leaving Iraq. The only thing we HAVEN’T tried is to leave Iraq, the only thing that the Iraqis have tried to persuade us to do, and the only thing that the majority of Americans want. Leave the damn Iraqis alone.

    And come home, kick our addiction to oil, develop alternative, clean energies, make oil as desirable for energy as whale blubber, and make a pile of money marketing our new alternative energy. Turn the oil industry upside down. Consumers will buy the new clean products just as soon as they become available.

    It’s all a distraction so Cheney-Bush and their friends can continue ripping off not only us but the world. So obvious.

  • Today”s Parade Magazine rated the World’s top dictators. Much to my surprise (Not!) Bush was not on the list.

    Here is what I have been mulling over and I want to put it out for comments. 1- America is supposed to be a Democracy…. Hence, voice of the people. 2- In this last election the American people gave voice to their dissatisfaction with the current administration and elected Democrats in both houses. 3- The Democarts have done nothing to end the war, which is what the American people want them to do. This is why they were elected…. not to push around non-binding resolutions or anything else. They were put in to end the war. 4- If the newly elected Democrats continue to dilly dally, they will be seen as impotent and powerless. 5- They will lose the 2008 presidential election because they have not done what the people told them to do. 6- Is everyone so afraid of GWB and his cronies that they cannot stop him and stop this war?

    My question is this…. What WILL it take to turn this dictatorship back into a democracy and to remove the current US dictator?

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