This is one of those stories where I just shake my head in disbelief. I just don’t understand why somebody, who now knows that the troop level was not adequate, would say that he’d do the same thing given a second chance.
From the Washington Post:
President Bush today said mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion, but he defended the troop level he ordered in the initial strike, saying he would have committed the same number if given a second chance.
Recalling his pre-war conversations with Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion and is now retired, Bush told a business group in Irvine, Calif.: “The level that he suggested was the troop level necessary to do the job, and I support it strongly.”
No. The troop level Franks suggested was NOT the troop level necessary to do the job. What is wrong with this man that he simply can’t say he’d do things differently? It’s as if he really buys that “flip-flopper” nonsense his campaign pushed in the 2004 campaign. Yep, once you make up your mind you stick to it, come hell or high casualties…
And then this…
“I also want to let you know that before you commit troops that you must do everything that you can to solve the problem diplomatically. And I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq, knowing what I know today.”
I don’t say this often about Bush, but that statement is just an outright lie. He did not do everything possible to solve the problem diplomatically. Iraq was destroying its aluminum tubes and Saddam had gone through back channels to try and seek asylum elsewhere. Bush and company knew all of this.
And then…this…
“I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there’s an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody’s soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free.”
Okay, I’m done.