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| Iraq |
| How Bush Decided on the Surge |
| 2008-01-27 |
A footnote from Cliff May from the National Review:One footnote: Barnes reports that just before Robert Gates took over as Secretary of Defense, he informed Bush that “as a member of the Baker-Hamilton Commission, he favored a surge of additional troops in Iraq.” The date: December 13, 2006. The location: a windowless conference room in the Pentagon known as the Tank. It was an inauspicious place for President Bush to confront the last major obstacle to the most important decision of his second term, perhaps of his entire presidency. And the president chose not to deal with his hosts, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a commander in chief would address subordinates. He hadn't come to the military brass's turf simply to order the five chiefs and two combatant commanders to begin a "surge" of additional troops in Iraq and to pursue a radical change in strategy. For that, he might have summoned them to the Oval Office or the Situation Room in the basement of the White House. He had come to the Pentagon to persuade and cajole, not command. The president was in a weak and lonely position. After Republicans lost the Senate and House in the midterm election on November 7, nearly 200 members of Congress had met with him at the White House, mostly to grouse about Iraq. Democrats urged him to begin withdrawing troops, in effect accepting defeat. Many of the Republicans were panicky and blamed Bush and the Iraq war for the Democratic landslide. They feared the 2008 election would bring worse losses. They wanted out of Iraq too. Inside his own administration, Bush had few allies on a surge in Iraq aside from the vice president and a coterie of National Security Council (NSC) staffers. The Joint Chiefs were disinclined to send more troops to Iraq or adopt a new strategy. So were General George Casey, the American commander in Iraq, and Centcom commander John Abizaid. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice favored a troop pullback. A week earlier, the Iraq Study Group, better known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission, had recommended a graceful exit from Iraq. The presence of former secretary of state James Baker, a longtime Bush family friend, on the commission was viewed in Washington and around the world as significant. It was assumed, correctly in this instance, that Baker wouldn't have taken the post if the president had objected. (At least one top Bush adviser faulted Rice for not blocking the amendment by Republican representative Frank Wolf of Virginia that created the commission in the first place.) Baker was seen as providing cover for Bush to order a gradual retreat from Iraq. But retreat was the furthest thing from Bush's mind. "This is very trite," he told me. "Failure was no option . . . I never thought I had to give up the goal of winning." He wanted one more chance to win. Con't at link |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #4 "Many of the Republicans were panicky and blamed Bush and the Iraq war for the Democratic landslide." BS - its Republicans spending, pork barreling, and genreally being more concered with earmarking than governing responsibly as conservatives. And the sad thing is the stupid SOBs *still* havent gotten the point. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-01-27 23:28 |
| #3 You missed the /sarcasm tag Woof. The only reason gas price are high is because of those in this country who keep our own resources out of the production process. As for habeas corpus, there is suspension during war time. And just how many have been subjected to this in 7 years? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-01-27 22:12 |
| #2 Dubya may get a lot wrong and doesn't speak very well, but on that day he stood tall. When the world stood against him and he was alone, DAMN but he stood tall. |
| Posted by: Tarzan Ebbusing9211 2008-01-27 20:07 |
| #1 BusHitler is a stuborn SOB. He's letting the Messicans raise gas prices and burying the habeus corpus. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2008-01-27 15:36 |