Bush takes questions
The President has kept pretty far away from questioning reporters over the last months, but yesterday he did take 3 questions during his photo op with Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi. In the first answer, he lied, in the second answer, he was optimistic to a fault, and in the third, he glibly dismissed the official reports of the CIA.
In the first answer, he lied outright about what Kerry had said, to the point that I've heard two different news organizations comment "This is what Kerry ACTUALLY said," and play the tape. (Bush said that Kerry said the world was better off with Saddam in power, when in fact Kerry said Saddam deserved a special place in hell, but that alone wasn't sufficient cause for war.)
In the second answer, to an Iraqi journalist, he repeated what I've been hearing called the "Tinkerbell" argument: "in spite of the sacrifices being made, in spite of the fact that Iraqis are dying and U.S. troops are dying, as well, that there is a will amongst the Iraqi people to succeed", as if a will to succeed was enough. (I'm pretty sure the will to be free of Saddam didn't help the Iraqi people following the first Gulf War. Perhaps they weren't clapping loud enough.) I find this to be a hint of the influence of born-again evangelistic thought on Bush - things will turn out right, because good people want them to, so God will deliver it.
In the third answer he dismissed the National Intelligence Estimate which was leaked the other day. He didn't even bother saying that the news reports got it wrong. Instead, he said " And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like." It's nice to know that the President is paying all those folks over at the CIA to just sit around "guessing". And I'm sure the President's guess about what will happen is MUCH more reliable than that of people who spend hours studying and debating it. Odd how these same people produce "good, solid intelligence" when it says something the President wants it to.
I'm really concerned about the degree of magical thinking I hear in statements from the administration lately. Over and over I'm hearing people refer to intention, determination, will to succeed, belief in democracy, and other states of mind as if they were, in-and-of-themselves, enough to make things work in Iraq. "The Iraqi people have a will to succeed" is not a coherent answer to "What is your plan to make things work in Iraq?"
Do they think they can get credit for doing the assignment because they wanted to do it, even though they didn't? Y'know, maybe that is how it's been for Georgie growing up. It certainly describes his National Guard tenure. And if fits the way they've been talking about their training of Iraqi security forces. Hmm.)
In the first answer, he lied outright about what Kerry had said, to the point that I've heard two different news organizations comment "This is what Kerry ACTUALLY said," and play the tape. (Bush said that Kerry said the world was better off with Saddam in power, when in fact Kerry said Saddam deserved a special place in hell, but that alone wasn't sufficient cause for war.)
In the second answer, to an Iraqi journalist, he repeated what I've been hearing called the "Tinkerbell" argument: "in spite of the sacrifices being made, in spite of the fact that Iraqis are dying and U.S. troops are dying, as well, that there is a will amongst the Iraqi people to succeed", as if a will to succeed was enough. (I'm pretty sure the will to be free of Saddam didn't help the Iraqi people following the first Gulf War. Perhaps they weren't clapping loud enough.) I find this to be a hint of the influence of born-again evangelistic thought on Bush - things will turn out right, because good people want them to, so God will deliver it.
In the third answer he dismissed the National Intelligence Estimate which was leaked the other day. He didn't even bother saying that the news reports got it wrong. Instead, he said " And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like." It's nice to know that the President is paying all those folks over at the CIA to just sit around "guessing". And I'm sure the President's guess about what will happen is MUCH more reliable than that of people who spend hours studying and debating it. Odd how these same people produce "good, solid intelligence" when it says something the President wants it to.
I'm really concerned about the degree of magical thinking I hear in statements from the administration lately. Over and over I'm hearing people refer to intention, determination, will to succeed, belief in democracy, and other states of mind as if they were, in-and-of-themselves, enough to make things work in Iraq. "The Iraqi people have a will to succeed" is not a coherent answer to "What is your plan to make things work in Iraq?"
Do they think they can get credit for doing the assignment because they wanted to do it, even though they didn't? Y'know, maybe that is how it's been for Georgie growing up. It certainly describes his National Guard tenure. And if fits the way they've been talking about their training of Iraqi security forces. Hmm.)
posted by Paul at 10:16 AM |
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