Recasting Bush as the hero of Iraq is taking things much too far
I see that Fox News and top Republicans such as Mitch McConnell are insisting that President Obama credit his predecessor, President George W. Bush, for making possible tonight’s announcement that U.S. troops are no longer engaged in combat in Iraq.
I suppose that’s true, they have a point. You could certainly argue, for example, that if Bush hadn’t committed us to that misbegotten war in the first place, President Obama wouldn’t be making tonight’s speech.
In fact, if Bush hadn’t decided to try to occupy Iraq with far fewer troops than were necessary, ignoring advice from top generals that several hundred thousand soldiers would be needed to do the job right, we might have been able to bring our role to a conclusion years ago instead of now. So they’re right in that sense as well.
And if Bush had understood the nature of the conflict much earlier — if he hadn’t stood in front of that “Mission Accomplished” banner on May 1, 2003 and proclaimed that major combat had ended in Iraq, at a point when just 172 U.S. soldiers had been killed out of an eventual 4,000 — yeah, maybe Obama wouldn’t have to be announcing the ACTUAL end of major combat for U.S. forces on an August night more than seven years later.
If Bush hadn’t stubbornly, blindly insisted year after year that the war was going well, that there was no civil war, that the incompetent Donald Rumsfeld was a great defense secretary, that no change of strategy was necessary because the original strategy was so brilliant — if he hadn’t refused to acknowledge reality until after the 2006 midterms forced him to do so — yeah, maybe Bush himself would have been able to make this speech while he was still president.
But that didn’t happen. For years, Bush tried to halfway it, refusing to commit fully but refusing to withdraw either.
“Some Americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don’t you send more troops?” Bush said in a typical speech in 2005. “If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them. But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight.”
Look, I’m not trying to dredge up ancient disputes here, and I’m not looking for another chance to bash the ex-president. He has left office, and history will now reach its own verdict on his leadership and judgment. I’m fine with that. I will also acknowledge, as I have in the past, that the 2007 surge and the change in military leadership that Bush finally implemented were more successful in rebuilding security than I and many others, including Barack Obama, had expected at the time. As I also noted earlier today, Obama doesn’t deserve a huge amount of credit for this withdrawal process, because he has merely followed the timeline set by Bush.
For that and many other reasons, it was perfectly appropriate for Obama to call Bush today as a matter of courtesy, and I hope and expect that the president will treat his predecessor with grace in tonight’s remarks.
All that said, however, it is also impossible to sit silently by while the Republicans try to rewrite a history that remains so fresh in so many minds. The invasion of Iraq was not a triumph of the Bush years, it was his greatest single mistake and probably the single greatest foreign-policy blunder in U.S. history.
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446 comments Add your comment
Normal
August 31st, 2010
6:36 pm
Bush? Hero? EEEWWWWWWW!
Hootinanny Yum Yum
August 31st, 2010
6:37 pm
Bush did it!
Hootinanny Yum Yum
August 31st, 2010
6:38 pm
Bush’s fault!
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
6:41 pm
Leave it to the Iraqis eh? Like I said below, I sure wouldn’t want to be a Kurdish, Christian, gay woman in what we’re leaving behind…but, hey, human rights is not real high on the agenda these days, are they?
RW-(the original)
August 31st, 2010
6:41 pm
If Obama was really smart he would give Bush 100% of the credit and claim he really had no choice but to follow the SOFA Bush put in place. Then if it goes to hell in a handbasket he can refer back to this speech.
barking frog
August 31st, 2010
6:43 pm
but..but…Exxon/Mobil got their contract and
we caught and the Iraqis killed Saddam that
tried to kill w’s daddy..How is he not a hero?
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
6:44 pm
RW
Makes sense to me….
barking
Yep.
Normal
August 31st, 2010
6:51 pm
This I could believe…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5_qhnWByA4
ByteMe
August 31st, 2010
6:51 pm
Heck, Jay, the Faux Talking Heads try to rewrite history from just a few months ago (e.g., they lauded their second-largest shareholder — Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal — on air in April, but now they want to claim he’s the “terrorist money” behind the “ground zero mosque”)! Why such an uproar over their trying to rewrite history from a few years ago? That seems pretty tame when you put it in context.
President Hussein
August 31st, 2010
6:51 pm
How’s he gonna read that telepromptor tonight with his fake birth certificate glued to his forehead?
Scout
August 31st, 2010
6:53 pm
May I say something here? Bush made a lot of mistakes (mainly due to Rumsfield) but guess what.
He is NOT the current president.
Snope Man
August 31st, 2010
6:55 pm
Let’s talk about history, like from 2007 to 2008 and Democrats on Petraeus surge planning under Bush (yeah, that guy liberals snidely called Betrayus):
“I believe … that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything…” – Harry Reid
“I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.” – Senator Barrak Obama
“The Bush Surge will backfire” – General (RET) Wesley Clark
“This whole notion that the surge is working is fantasy.” – Senator Joe Biden
“I think it is very difficult for the President to sustain a war of this magnitude without the support of the American people, and without the support of the Congress of the United States. That’s why Congress will vote to oppose the President’s escalation.” – Nancy Pelosi
On and on and on we can go. But the point here is that Democrats wanted BUSH to fail. They could care less about whatever happened in Iraq. Thats not history revision – that’s the fact.Now that we know Democrats were wrong. Whether or not you were against the war in the first place is irrelevant. Democrats were wrong then and now they know Bush was right. Again, whether or not you were against the war is not up for debate here. Of course, I won’t even bring up the fact that a large enough portion of Democrats supported and voted for giving Bush authority to go to war in Iraq in the first place.
And by the way, all that time Democrats said that Afghanistan was the “real” war and Bush was taking his eye off the ball. Where are these same Democrats now on Afghanistan? But give credit to Democrats for one thing: they are taking their eye off the ball of their failed economic policies. Fortunately, tens of millions of people are no longer buying their bait-n-switch tactics depending on which way the political winds are blowing. Right now, people are more worried about where their next paycheck is going to come from than what’s going on in Iraq.
Normal
August 31st, 2010
6:55 pm
Baby Bush’s theme song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8BT3wbZSo&feature=related
Scout
August 31st, 2010
6:55 pm
President Hussein :
Let’s be fair. That “birth certificate” is not inaccurate, altered or counterfeit on its face. It is simply incomplete.
What Obama was talking about is his “Certification of Live Birth” which has minimal information.
His actual “Brith Certificate” has additional information such as the hospital of record and attending physician. If for no other reason, the National Park Service needs to know which hosptial so they can put up a marker.
Normal
August 31st, 2010
6:57 pm
Did the surge work? We will see when the last American soldier is gone…
WillieBee
August 31st, 2010
6:57 pm
Bush invaded Iraq and history has been his judge. In my view the war was a mistake.
However, Obama has finished things up right on the schedule that Bush left when he left office. If all Obama can do is blame Bush, he will have further redueced himself, further diminished his presidency and minimzed himself as a leader. Obama needed to decide if he was going to be a leader or a democrat. So far, he has consistently chosen democrat.
All of us are poorer for his unremitting partisanship. And that includes Obama himself.
@@
August 31st, 2010
6:58 pm
it is also impossible to sit silently by while the Republicans try to rewrite a history that remains so fresh in so many minds.
Obama tries to rewrite everyday.
Inherited Bush’s economic mess? More like supported it while he was sitting in the U.S. Senate.
Whatever, jay. You’ve got your mess call, and I’ve got mine.
Scout
August 31st, 2010
7:03 pm
Are the comments closed for the night ?
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:03 pm
Normal
@ 6:55
Aw! That was sweet…
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:05 pm
Rewrite history? What’s one more…I just got through reviewing a “new and improved” American history text…Oy!
jconservative
August 31st, 2010
7:13 pm
Two thoughts.
1. Bush said combat ended in May 2003. So what the hell is Obama gonna talk about?
2. Bush negotiated the treaty that outlined the troop draw down dates. So what the hell is Obama gonna talk about?
And just so everyone can get it straight in their head, Bush did not go into Iraq for any other reason than he thought 9/11 had damaged the USA reputation in the world and going to war was a good way to get that reputation back. You doubters can read Richard Haass’ book on the two Iraq wars which Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice all say is accurate.
All the junk you heard about WMD, al Qaeda in Iraq, etc, etc was just advertising by the Bush Administration to get you suckers to buy into the war. And it worked.
Paul
August 31st, 2010
7:15 pm
Pres Obama telephoned Pres Bush?
That was gracious, and appropriate. Frankly, it’s about as far as it should go. The world stage is not the place for a president to announce to the world “before I was president, I was on record for a course of action that, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best.” I know, some will argue he’s ‘apologized’ in the past. I’ll submit reflecting on a nation’s strengths and weaknesses and how to become more in line with what we proclaim ourselves to be is orders of magnitude different than an apology regarding a point in one’s political career.
Many have criticized him for so many “I” statements or ‘making it all about himself.’ Now’s not the time to change minds and have him start making more “I” statements.
Unless those doing the advocating want to apologize for being wrong in the past…
Jay
Far as I remember, it was one senior military leader, the Army Chief of Staff, who publicly said more troops would be needed for the occupation. He’d already announced his retirement and his assessment was in response to a direct Congressional question, I do believe.
Pres Bush’s assertion no-one else asked for more troops, even in the midst of the fiasco, just strengthens my belief that numerous Army commanders and the then (AF) Chief of Staff should have been fired. That’s a statement of personal belief – I realize the practical truth is those who had the authority to fire them were part of the blindness.
Anyone stop to think that all the hoopla over his remarks as a senator is what might have swung the balance in his decision to escalate in Afghanistan?
@@
August 31st, 2010
7:17 pm
Hamas has claimed responsibility for killing 4 Israelis in the West Bank. Two men and two women…one pregnant. The car was riddled with bullets to disable it, and then the passengers were drug from the car and shot in vital organs…execution style.
Must be opposed to Obama’s meeting with Abbas and Netanyahu.
Free Palestine from Hamas!
Paul
August 31st, 2010
7:18 pm
Jay
Correction: “and the then (AF) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff…”
Patrick
August 31st, 2010
7:19 pm
Jay Bookman– I agree with much, but is this the ACTUAL end of major combat? For you or Obama to seriously claim that we are done with the fighting is really going out on a limb, especially as over 50000 troops will still be there for the foreseeable future!
landry
August 31st, 2010
7:26 pm
Obama needs to put on a flight suit and land on beck’s arse and claim mission accomplished…..
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:28 pm
@@
Oh, that’s right…human rights is confined now to the West Bank and Gaza… ISH
landry
August 31st, 2010
7:30 pm
Obama should hire the marketing team from the neocons who came up with the slogan, “Stay the Course”, maybe that will by him sometime, although I doubt the frothing lunatic christian right would give him a nanosecond to resolve the mess they made……
Jack
August 31st, 2010
7:33 pm
I can’t help but wonder what Bookman would have done if he’d been president when 9/11 took place. Form a committee? Organize a community? Take a vacation?
GOP is Gone
August 31st, 2010
7:33 pm
Exactly, if we had not invaded a sovereign nation on poor intelligence, or a down right lie, in the first place, then we would not have nearly 5000 dead Americans, a trillion dollars in debt to China, and over 100,000 dead Iraqis on Bush’s hands. History will clearly judge this fiasco for what it was, just that.
Need I add that the “surge” started to work when we wised up and started paying the Sunnis to stop fighting. Just what will happen if when we stop paying them? Civil War, again?
We broke this country, destroyed the infrastructure with shock and awe and now we are finally leaving. Who knows how it will end. Without a functioning government, abject corruption and nearly weekly, if not daily violence, I would hardly categorize this a victory.
What a waste, so many dead and wounded for life, for so little.
F. Sinkwich
August 31st, 2010
7:36 pm
What in the world does Obama think he’s going to accomplish tonight?
Only his second prime time address (first was the oil spill). The economy is in the tank and he has no idea what to do about it because he and his advisers have no experience in the private sector.
He’s clueless.
Nan
August 31st, 2010
7:37 pm
Bush did what was right for the people of Iraq; freedom that America was founded on. What can O’Bam say he has done for the American people?
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:41 pm
NAN
Freedom?
I take it you’re not a Kurdish, Christian, gay woman….
F. Sinkwich
August 31st, 2010
7:42 pm
Nan,
“What can O’Bam say he has done for the American people?”
Uh, ruined the economy?
paleo-neo-Carlinist
August 31st, 2010
7:43 pm
Jack, what would you have done; waited 18 months and invaded a sovereign nation with NO TIES TO 9/11 (which diverted assets from the war you were waging to “hunt and kill” those responsible for 9/11)? but enough about you and JB, you know what I would have done? I would have nuked bin Laden at Tora Bora. no JDAMS or bunker busters, no asking the Pakistani’s to cover the presumed escape route, no false “concern” about U.S. casualties in commiting a company of Rangers to kill bin Laden.
GOP is Gone
August 31st, 2010
7:43 pm
LOL……..Bush decides what is best for Iraqis……………..Just how would you and yours react to Islamic Troops taking over America and having your streets occupied by troops with guns and humvees? Maybe they think Islam is the way America should be? No wonder they hate us, the supreme arrogance of some Americans. We know what is best for you and your country, so shut up and stop fighting us.
As a matter of fact it sounds a lot like what we said to the Native Americans. And we all know how that turned out for them.
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:46 pm
GOP
Don’t go bringing the Indians into this…not the same thing at all…the Civil War, maybe…
Mike
August 31st, 2010
7:47 pm
Bush is a butthole (and his followers too).
paleo-neo-Carlinist
August 31st, 2010
7:50 pm
just a hunch j nix, but when the time comes, look for the Republic of Kurdistan. I believe they are atop much of the oil much ballyhooed oil reserves are under the Kurds. there may have to be some horse-trading with Turkey, but let’s face it, Turkey is only important a couple times a year. I think we’ll be happy to let the Sunni and the Shia slug it out in southern Iraq (think lots of dead Muslims, no matter who wins).
GOP is Gone
August 31st, 2010
7:50 pm
no josef, It is the exact mind set that White Settlers had towards Native Americans. We are superior and our way is best, if you do not agree to give us what we want we will kill you and take it.
Thanks for Nuthin'
August 31st, 2010
7:50 pm
Well, if the cons want everyone to thank Bush for Iraq, then where does that leave Rumsfeld and Reagan. Don’t they deserve at least a little of the credit for all those dead US soldiers and all those dead Iraqi civilians and the trillion dollars to fight the war. And we haven’t even mentioned Bush Sr. yet.
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:53 pm
GOP
Okay, two questions. First, may I see your CDIB card and second are you living on land seized under the terms of the Treaty of New Echota and depopulated during Removal?
Paulo977
August 31st, 2010
7:53 pm
Some hero … causing over 1 miilion Iraqis to be wiped off the face of the planet by engaging in an illegal war and leaving a splintered society!!!
josef nix
August 31st, 2010
7:55 pm
paleo
I agree with that summation. And the Kurds have got Israel on their side…
Doggone/GA
August 31st, 2010
7:55 pm
“We are superior and our way is best”
aka “the White Man’s burden”
Paulo977
August 31st, 2010
7:59 pm
GOP is Gone re: “mindset’ Absolutely .The movie AVATAR brought this out in no uncertain terms!!
paleo-neo-Carlinist
August 31st, 2010
8:03 pm
any of you folks ever heard of a cat named Jimmy Carter? he was the POTUS immediately after Nixon/Ford. forget about Watergate; politics as usual, but the real issue of the Nixon years was the 1973 OPEC embargo. it sent our economy into a tailspin, and from that moment on the “issue” in the Middle East was not Arabs and Jews, it was “how do we feed our addiction?” Carter warned of our dependence and was ridiculed for his “it’s patriotic to wear a sweater and keep the thermostat at 65.” he “failed” as a President because he couldn’t compete with American consumerism and greed and when he capitulated; admitting that the Middle East was now a strategic concern of the U.S. moving forward, the “dogs of war” were unleashed. the spin doctors of the neo-con right played the Israel card (double whammy – Jews lobby ghard AND fundamentalist Christians see our presence as Biblically mandated). the Bush “family ties” with the Saudi royal family were well known, so the plan was to package the projection of U.S. power in the Middle East as some patriotic crusade, and if the “natives” got out of line (behaved as they always have), we had the largest, most advanced and powerful military force in the history of the world to “plow the runways”. Bush is a criminal. and any GOP wag who “defends” him is a fool.
GOP is Gone
August 31st, 2010
8:06 pm
Yes josef, I probably am living on land that was stolen from Creeks and Cherokees, as are you. Not being say 250 years old, I cannot take personal responsibility. However, the mind set of thinking “we” know what is best for countries thousands of miles away from us in distance and culture is down right stupid.
I was watching interviews of the “Tea” people. One likened himself to a native American, knowing just how he felt when his country was taken away. I wish the interviewer had asked him just when
had armed men shot his wife and children, rounded up whom ever was left and locked them up on uninhabitable land far, far away, since he knows just how they felt.
paleo-neo-Carlinist
August 31st, 2010
8:10 pm
josef, I used this last week. in ‘91 there was a joke about Saddam being like Miss Muffet because they both “had Kurds in their way”. it’s all about oil. we (USA) are not very good poker players. we show our hand. Iraq, Iran, et all have to sell us the oil. they can’t drink it. they can’t bathe in it. sure, they can sell it to China, and Russia, and France, on the open market, but our oil companies don’t want an “open market”, they want the US military to fight and die to “secure” Iraq; then they want to extract, refine and… ’sell the oil on the open market.’ this is faux capitalism/free market at its best. at the very least, Obama should has said; “forget about withdrawls. we’re ceasing combat operations and we will secure the oil fields and nationalize them as assets of the U.S. government.” if ExxonMobil want the oil, let them hire Blackwater to take it from the USA.
Finn McCool
August 31st, 2010
8:14 pm
The surge was more a cash outlay than a ramp up in troops. We paid the enemy to stop shooting American soldiers. Money talks, all else walks!
That’s the American way. Buy your victory.