Read the Whole Thing

There have been plenty of jokes about George W. Bush and books. He's even made some of them. But a recent episode raises the question about whether he does read books and reports in full. On Thursday, a New York Times article on a White House meeting between Bush and congressional leaders reported:

Mr. Bush told the Democrats [at the meeting] that he hoped to ultimately follow several of the guidelines set forth last year in a report by the Iraq Study Group, which called for an eventual draw-down of American troops. According to the [unnamed White House] official, Mr. Bush noted that the Study Group, whose co-chairman was his father's former political aide, James A. Baker III, had suggested that a temporary troop increase could be a necessary step on the way to an eventual withdrawal.

Here's what the Iraq Study Group said about a military escalation:

Sustained increases in U.S. troop levels would not solve the fundamental cause of violence in Iraq, which is the absence of national reconciliation. A senior American general told us that adding U.S. troops might temporarily help limit violence in a highly localized area. However, past experience indicates that the violence would simply rekindle as soon as U.S. forces are moved to another area. As another American general told us, if the Iraqi government does not make political progress, "all the troops in the world will not provide security." Meanwhile, America's military capacity is stretched thin: we do not have the troops or equipment to make a substantial, sustained increase in our troop presence. Increased deployments to Iraq would also necessarily hamper our ability to provide adequate resources for our efforts in Afghanistan or respond to crises around the world.

Now, to be fair, the report did not rule out the notion of a surge. It also said:

Because of the importance of Iraq to our regional security goals and to our ongoing fight against al Qaeda, we considered proposals to make a substantial increase (100,000 to 200,000) in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. We rejected this course because we do not believe that the needed levels are available for a sustained deployment. Further, adding more American troops could conceivably worsen those aspects of the security problem that are fed by the view that the U.S. presence is intended to be a long-term "occupation." We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping missions, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective.

But note the use of the phrase "short-term." Bush has said nothing about the duration of his surge. In announcing it, he said,

This new strategy will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings, assassinations, or IED attacks. Our enemies in Iraq will make every effort to ensure that our television screens are filled with images of death and suffering. Yet over time, we can expect to see Iraqi troops chasing down murderers, fewer brazen acts of terror, and growing trust and cooperation from Baghdad's residents.

So his surge is supposed to go on "over time." It is not the short-term endeavor mentioned in the Iraq Study Group. More important, it is not occurring within the framework proposed by the Iraq Study Group, which called for a vigorous diplomatic effort and moving U.S. troops from combat to training missions in Iraq, with the goal of removing all combat brigades not necessary for force protection by the first quarter of 2008. Bush has not embraced the Baker panel's overall approach--more diplomacy, less combat--so it's disingenuous for him to cite its reference to a surge. This is cherry-picking.

BOMBS AWAY. MoveOn.org already has an ad out blasting Senator John McCain for his rendition of "Bomb, Bomb, Iran." (See below.) It didn't take long for a short video clip of McCain joking about a potential war to hit YouTube. Such is campaigning in the modern world. Didn't McCain learn anything from ex-Senator George "Macaca" Allen? You can see the MoveOn ad here.

Posted by David Corn at April 20, 2007 04:04 PM