In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Bush acknowledged that as early as “September/October” 2006, he realized a major change was needed in Iraq:WSJ: Was there a moment in the war when you said we have to make a major change in the way we’re doing things in Iraq?
GWB: Yes, there was.
WSJ: When was that?
GWB: September/October.
WSJ: Why?
GWB: Violence. It looked like it was uncontrollable.
The problem, as ThinkProgress points out, is that all thought October and November he was making claims like this:
QUESTION: Are we winning? BUSH: Absolutely we’re winning. … We’re winning and we will win, unless we leave before the job is done. And the crucial battle, right now, is Iraq. [10/25/06]BUSH: But I believe that the military strategy we have is going to work. That’s what I believe. [10/25/06]
QUESTION: But just to be clear: When the commanders on the ground tell the president, in the large picture, we are stepping closer to chaos, he believes that can also be a picture of winning?
SNOW: Yes. [11/1/06]BUSH: We’ve got a lot going for us. We got a strategy that helps us achieve victory, and we got a military that is the finest military any country has ever assembled. [11/3/06]
It is funny to me that a man who majored in history at Yale, and who claims that although his actions are misunderstood now they will be better understood in the long lens of history, doesn't understand that it is comments like these that will form the backbone of the history of his presidency.
Lies are often far, far easier to see from a distance than they are from up close. Particularly when the people telling the lies - wittingly or unwittingly - let the world know that they were lying in the first place.
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