Posted by Damozel | Bush seems to be in a confessional mood lately. If your approval ratings are as low as his are, it really must seem that there is nothing to lose. But were Democrats --- or McCain ---really listening last week when he said he knew about and approved of Cheney & Co.'s orchestration (or 'choreographing') of detainee torture?
The following is via Kevin Drum, who commented on Martha Raddatz's ("fearless combat journalist and tenacious interrogator") ABC News interview with Bush. It is fraught with interest.
Questioned by Raddatz, Bush conceded that at the time he was telling us that we were 'winning' in Iraq, he was worried that we were going to fail. He thought it was important for him to appear to know what he was doing (okay, he didn't put it quite that way) --- for the sake of the troops.
RADDATZ: But during that period -- during that period, how worried were you?
BUSH: I was worried. Look, I'm worried any time it looks like we're going to fail in Iraq. I'm driven by a lot of things. One is strategic concerns about Iraq. I mean, if Iraq fails, it's going to affect the security of the country, and it's going to create great turmoil in the Middle East. It will embolden Al Qaeda.
I'm also concerned about leaving our soldiers behind -- in other words, having the deaths and the sacrifice they made go in vain. I see parents all the time of, you know , people are mourning the loss of a loved one.
And they want to know whether or not the president is going to make the decisions necessary to accomplish this mission. And so I'm driven by a lot of concerns, but those are the two main ones.
RADDATZ: You said you worried any time you think it will fail. Did you think it would fail?
BUSH: I thought it was failing, yes, I did, and that's why -- and I listened to a lot of opinions. And as you remember, there were like all kinds of opinions....
RADDATZ: All during that period -- April, May, June, July -- when things were really going downhill, people were talking about there being civil war....You were saying, 'We're winning. We have a plan for victory. We are winning,' up through October....[W]hen you say, "We're winning," you know what the American people hear. You know how that will play...
BUSH: Well, yes. I think we -- and I wanted -- that's as much trying to bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well as -- look, you can't have the commander in chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing either, "It's not worth it," or, "You're losing." I mean, what does that do for morale?
I'm the commander in chief of the military as well, obviously, as, you know, somebody who speaks to the country. And if you look at my remarks, they were balanced. They weren't Pollyannaish.
RADDATZ: But you weren't talking about a new strategy. I mean, I remember going to some strategy tactic things with you. You weren't talking about a new strategy publicly.
It's one thing for the troops and boosting morale. I totally understand that. But do you think you lost credibility with the American people? Do you think that's one...
BUSH: Yes. (ABC News; emphasis added)
Aha, so he knows That's very interesting. I'd wondered about that.
Via Drum, I found Philip Carter's response at Intel Dump, entitled "Adding Insult to Injury." As someone who was present in Iraq during the period Bush is talking about, Carter doesn't appreciate the concept of telling lies for the sake of the troops.
I was in Iraq during this time in 2006. I remember well how the violence spiraled out of control after the Samarra mosque bombing in February 2006. How every single indicator pointed in the direction of doom; how all our advisory efforts seemed to produce little to no security improvement; how we felt like spectators watching a civil war engulf Iraq, with too few troops to make a difference, and no political direction to do so.
All through this period, I remember the president, his senior aides and senior military commanders toeing the party line that things were going swimmingly. The dissonance between the rhetoric from Washington and our experience in Iraq was stark. WWe knew the ground truth. Being deceived by our senior political leaders certainly didn't change that, nor did it help morale at all. If anything, it hurt morale by undermining confidence in the chain of command. Put bluntly, if you can't trust your generals and political leaders to tell you and your families the truth, how can you trust them at all?
It's disappointing to hear now, two years after the fact, that the president was knowingly bull----ing us the whole time. And that he justified such dishonesty in the name of supporting the troops and protecting their morale. That's an insult to America's men and women in uniform (and their families), who deserve to be told the truth by their political leaders about what's going on. It's also an insult to us, as voters, who deserve the truth so we can make the right decisions in the voting booth. (Intel Dump; emphasis added).
Matt Yglesias doesn't believe in the 'lying for the sake of the troops' explanation.
Both Phil and Kevin seem a bit too delicate to note that the President, even in his admission of past lying, is pretty clearly coming up with a new lie here. He wasn't pretending things were going well in Iraq for the troops, he was doing it for the midterm elections.
Maybe. Or maybe --- damn --- he really believed that lying about progress in Iraq was somehow helping the troops. I admit I find this hard to credit, so let's look at another possibility: that he really believes now that he believed then that lying about progress in Iraq was helping the troops. Talk about military madness.
Who the hell really knows what goes on in Bush's mind? Who knows what he was really telling himself or telling himself he was telling himself, back then? Who is this man? Does he even know himself? Does he ever consider the damage done?
I am not going to pronounce judgment on Bush for this. I'll let history do that.
OTHER BN-POLITICS POSTINGS
In Sadr City, Iraqi Unit Deserts; Leaves American Troops Twisting in the Wind
First Civilian Contractor on Trial for Allegedly Stabbing another Contractor
Bush Confirms Torture Policy (Part 2) to the Sound of Crickets Chirping
The Chinese and the West: Talking at Cross-Purposes?
Bush Aware of National Security Team's Discussions of Torture
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