Bush Stays the Course on ‘Turning Point’ Rhetoric
Bush Stays the Course on ‘Turning Point’ Rhetoric
In March, Boston University professor and former Army colonel Andrew Bacevich told the San Francisco Chronicle why he thought the public had soured on Bush’s Iraq policies. “My view of his problem,” he said, “is that the administration has repeatedly announced that the war had reached a turning point…and each time, that turning point didn’t count.â€
Today, Bush again tried to characterize a political development in Iraq as the true “turning pointâ€:
President Bush today called the formation of a new Iraqi government “a turning point,†after hearing from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld about their weekend meeting with that country’s prime minister designate.
But the administration has tried this rhetoric in the past, with limited success. Below are a few examples of Bush and others touting previous “turning points†in Iraq:
The 2004 transfer of sovereignty:
BUSH: A turning point will come in less than two weeks. On June the 30th, full sovereignty will be transferred to the interim government. The Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist, an American embassy will open in the capital of a free Iraq. [6/18/04]
The January 2005 Iraq election:
BUSH: Tomorrow the world will witness a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom, and a crucial advance in the war on terror. The Iraqi people will make their way to polling centers across their nation. [1/29/05]
MCCLELLAN: The election is a victory for the Iraqi people. It’s a significant step forward for freedom and it is a defeat for the terrorists and their ideology. It marks a turning point in Iraq’s history and a great advance toward a brighter future for all Iraqis, one that stands in stark contrast to the brutality and oppression of the past. [1/31/05]
CHENEY: The basic point, and one I’ve made already that I believe that the elections were the turning point. And we had that election in January — first free election in Iraq in decades. [12/18/05]
All of 2005:
BUSH: There’s still a lot of difficult work to be done in Iraq, but thanks to the courage of the Iraqi people, the year 2005 will be recorded as a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East, and the history of freedom. [12/12/05]
CHENEY: I think about when we look back and get some historical perspective on this period, I’ll believe that the period we were in through 2005 was, in fact, a turning point; that putting in place a democratic government in Iraq was the – sort of the cornerstone, if you will, of victory against the insurgents. [2/7/06]
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We’ve turned so many corners at this point, I think we have circled the block twice now. It did seem after the first year, that the phrase was used less and less.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:24 pmWhat’s the difference between continually ‘turning the corner’ and ‘circling the drain’??
May 1st, 2006 at 5:24 pmThe new “turning point” is GWB’s base turning on him.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:26 pmThe guy just keeps leaving big steaming pantloads wherever he goes or whatever he says, eh?
If he wasn’t such a privileged responsibility-avoider who’s killed & maimed tens of thousands, I’d almost feel sorry for his pathetic ass.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:28 pmHopefully the correspondents dinner represented a TURNING POINT on how the media will approach this administration – imo too little too late!
May 1st, 2006 at 5:30 pm“tipping point” was a real favorite back in 2003.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:31 pmAll this turning… why, one could almost describe it as ’spin’…
May 1st, 2006 at 5:33 pmWell it seems there are many more “turning points” yet to come over in Iraq. I wish these people would stop trivializing the term “turning point”, as it will have no effect when their actually is one.
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May 1st, 2006 at 5:50 pm6/12/2003:
Rice: The events of the last few months make clear that the Middle East is living through a time of great change. And despite the tragic events of the past few days, it is also a time of great hope. President Bush believes that the region is at a true turning point.
oh, and i think the 1/29/05 quote is really from 1/28/05
May 1st, 2006 at 5:50 pmWe’ve turned so many corners at this point, I think we have circled the block twice now. It did seem after the first year, that the phrase was used less and less.
Comment by Krazny — May 1, 2006 @ 5:24 pm
With bush he thinks he is really going someplace…sort of like a dog I used to have a couple of times around the block and he was happy with his “ride” too
May 1st, 2006 at 5:51 pmTurning point, bush has screwed up ‘EVERWHERE YOU TURN’.
May 1st, 2006 at 6:02 pmIf bush didn’t actually say..’mission accomplished’..then why didn’t he tell the ships officers to ‘take it down’? Snotty,your pants are on fire…again.
God Bless the limited short-term memory of the American people!
May 1st, 2006 at 6:23 pm#13 Jones that is really the only hope for the GOP in November, that people won’t remember any of the past 5 1/2 years before they vote….
May 1st, 2006 at 6:30 pmUS has spun Iran since 1953 and the installation of the Shaw. There is nothing new about politics that I can see. We’ve been freeing people since the 1890s like the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, Laos, Cambodia, Nigeria, Hawaii, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Iraq, Vietnam… Of course, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Pakistan, Indonesia and assortment of -stans are our friends.
May 1st, 2006 at 6:45 pmBush first used the “turning” metaphor on the USS Abe Lincoln, in front of that Mission Accomplished banner. “We have seen the turning of the tide.”
May 1st, 2006 at 6:45 pmTurning point ? What turning point ? Didn’t you hear our prez when he was on that ship three years ago .
May 1st, 2006 at 6:46 pmThere is absolutly nothing that comes out of their mouths that I believe , especially crap like “Turning points “
May 1st, 2006 at 6:49 pmOnly mentals listen to Bubble boy anyway.
Let me tell you about a mental I met in line at the Dept of Motor Veihicles last week….
This guy starts with a million questions about getting a state I.D.
Before you know it he is telling me his life story….He is homeless and relies on charities to feed him….He’s 27 years old and his fiance dumped him a year ago when he shoved a peice of tree bark in his ear….He’s not bipolar, he’s manic depressive…..He is awaiting a bed in a group home via the Health Dept…..
Someone in line brought up Bush, the mental said “whats wrong with Bush?”….That was my cue to accept this guy as a total nutcase and give him the brush off.
I got a good laugh but who has the time to answer a question like “whats wrong with Bush?” I don’t.
May 1st, 2006 at 6:56 pmTurning, as in “twisting in the wind”…
May 1st, 2006 at 7:15 pmOne can always tell when bushie is lying.
His mouth is open and his lips are flapping together.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:29 pmTurning points — there have been so many, it’s no wonder they are dizzy.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:40 pmTurned a corner — I wonder what block they live on.
I can’t listen to him/them any more — they lie so often they can’t even think of different words.
I believe we have to enlist hyperdimensional mathematicians to figure out how to represent an object with this many corners..
May 1st, 2006 at 8:00 pmI believe we have to enlist hyperdimensional mathematicians to figure out how to represent an object with this many corners..
Comment by Gryn — May 1, 2006 @ 8:00 pm
not really Gryn…the neo-cons have been around the block but are still afraid to tell Bush thay they ain’t getting anywhere, so they just say turning another corner and Bush turns the wheel…
May 1st, 2006 at 8:10 pmWe’ve had so many turning points, that I’m a little bit lost
May 1st, 2006 at 8:14 pmDubya Dunce Decider is a baloney con-artist and pathological liar, so anything he spews is bogus nonsense or concocted crap! He must resign or be impeached as soon as possible!!!
May 1st, 2006 at 9:04 pmWhen do you think the administration will start using a different phrase than “turning the corner�
We’ve turned like 50 corners. They are literally running in circles! (A fitting metaphor for this administration if you ask me.)
May 1st, 2006 at 9:24 pm“US senator urges decentralised Iraq
“In an op-ed essay in Monday’s edition of The New York Times, Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote that the idea “is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralising it, giving each ethno-religious group … room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests.”
THE DISMANTLEMENT STRATEGY CONTINUES.
Invading innocent disarmed countries to install airbases is … well, you know. GENOCIDE.
Biden supports that genocide. He’s been in on it from the start, one of several Dem Senators who have betrayed their country, international law, and the rule of law itself.
He offers PNAC the next step in their strategy, because he knew Kissinger was correct when he said:
“There IS NO MORE IRAQ. There will be three territories.” (early 2004, to his Saudi clients)
For now, three autonomous regions with a central gov’t for the big stuff that doesn’t exist any more. Put in the dotted lines, now (Thanks, Joe!), the thick lines will come later.
Iraq is TOAST, and was FROM THE START of this illegal, immoral policy, with Biden signed on.
Biden is a criminal.
May 1st, 2006 at 9:47 pm#19 – I talk to people around here who will like GWB no matter what he does because he SAYS he’s a christian, he’s pro-life, he executed people as governor of TX, and he’s against same sex marriage. There is quite literally nothing he could do that these people would not be able to defend.
May 1st, 2006 at 10:02 pmhe’s a christian,he’s pro-life, he executed people as governor of TX,
Correct me if I am wrong but therer is a contridiction there somewhere……
maybe this one?
Luke 8:3 The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say?†8:6 (Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against him.) Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. 8:7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight and replied, “Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her.†8:8 Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground.
8:9 Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 8:10 Jesus stood up straight and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?†8:11 She replied, “No one, Lord.†And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.â€
May 1st, 2006 at 10:07 pmGood comment #28. That is the real news that is worth looking farther into. It looks like more than just Bush signed on to this sordid divide and conquer concept.
May 1st, 2006 at 10:47 pm#19 SR
Bipolar disorder and manic depressive are one in the same.
May 1st, 2006 at 11:17 pm#19 SR
Bipolar disorder and manic depressive are one in the same. Bipolar is the two opposite poles, manic and depressive.
May 1st, 2006 at 11:18 pmI think shrubya meant 2 months not 2 weeks – June 30th from now.
May 1st, 2006 at 11:57 pmFood for thought;;;
Participants: George Perkovich, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [Jan 2003]
Jo Husbands, U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Husain Haqqani, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Moderated by Rachel Stohl, Center for Defense Information
Dr Husband;
And one is how much the resumption of arms transfers and military assistance to India and Pakistan is an obvious reaction and reflection of 9/11; that in this situation, the Bush Administration, as other administrations well might have, has turned to an old or what they perceive as an old and reliable instrument of American foreign policy to support an active response to a threat to the United States.
~
I would note that the original request was for a waiver for five years of all restrictions on all arms transfers everywhere. What they settled for was a lifting of restrictions on India and Pakistan and some gradual other enabling of transfers to Central Asian countries.
~
And the first one is simply the thuddingly obvious point that we are, as George has demonstrated, now engaged in arming both sides of a situation where there have been major conflicts in the past and major recent crises that threatened serious violence and conflict. And that’s a situation of which we should be very much aware and very sensitive.
~
[Another turning point? Yeh right.]
The Wings of a Hawk
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:17 amWhy is Bush selling F-16s to Pakistan?
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005, at 7:01 PM ET
With his decision last week to sell F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan, President Bush returns to a dangerous game of self-deception that hasn’t been seen at this level of risk since Richard Nixon was in the White House.
The deal involves a mere couple of dozen F-16s, but it opens up three avenues of great hazard.
First, right after President Bush told the Pakistanis that the sale was on, he called the Indians to assure them he would take a well-disposed look at their weapons wish lists to redress the resulting imbalance. The unfolding dynamic is thus predictable: Pakistan orders still more weapons to compensate for India’s new purchase; India buys more to match the ante; and on the ratcheting goes, the tinderbox swelling.
~
As the Corners Turn…
Do a search of “Bush” “Iraq” “turning point” on firstgov.gov, and you’ll get 2.415 results. We’re not just turning, we’re doing the damn hokey pokey.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:53 amMaybe the cause of all the problems today can be stopped by having the pres stop turning so many times. He must be so dizzy by now from turning so many times that I bet he can’t standup!
May 2nd, 2006 at 7:59 ambilljpa
We are continuing to see progress in Iraq, and it’s good to see that there are so many turing points as we attempt to help Iraqis stear their nation in the right direction. When you need to turn around on a narrow road, you need to make several turning points until you are facing in the right direction.
It’s funny to me that Americans who don’t really want us to win the war are so frustrated by the turning points. I can imagine them sitting in the back seat while I’m making my 3-point turn, making fun of me for almost running off the road, when in reality that’s what has to happen to get me turned around. Won’t they feel foolish when the car is turned around and running in the right direction?
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:12 am#38 – The only problem is that you’re not really “turning around”, you’re just doing an 800-point spinning in place.
I’ve spoken with friends who were/are stationed in Iraq, and while we don’t always hear the good news, we also don’t always hear the bad news. (BAD NEWS) Did you know that the “green zone” is still hit by mortars? (GOOD NEWS) It’s no longer every single night. Sometimes, the have a mortar-free night.
I really hope that we do help Iraq, but considering the abysmal track record of the current administration, Pres. Bush, and the elected Republicans (and some Democrats), I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t ho;d my breath as the vehicle continues to spin in place.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:24 amWhen you stay on the same path and you “turn the corner” three times you end up where you started.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:32 amThere are no corners, only the same sad slog of a blind horse which smells a carrot it will never taste……….
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:37 amThe whirling dervish doctrine?
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:28 amIf you turn the corner three times but keep turning sooner and sooner you are in a spiral.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:10 amAnd THIS time, we mean it! But those Iraqi’s who are playing “hard to liberate” will mess it all up, like usual. But GWB will just keep on spinning the poo. It’s what he does.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:33 pmWe are sour on the war because we were lied to by these deceitful fascists. Turning Point? —Ever hear about the boy who cried wolf?
May 2nd, 2006 at 4:33 pmWe are sour on the war because we were lied to by these deceitful fascists. Turning Point? —Ever hear about the boy who cried wolf?
May 2nd, 2006 at 4:33 pmI just hope the Democrats take back congress so we can impeach GWB. If he thinks the war was so necessary why didn’t he send the twins. This guy is the worse president of my lifetime, hands down. Nixon was two-bit crook but he had much better diplomatic skills than this crowd.
May 2nd, 2006 at 4:36 pm~~~I don’t know so much about Carter ~~ But I think his Presidency suffered and then crashed from high domestic gas prices and problems in the Middle East ~~ ……..
~~Nixon spied on Americans ~~ perpetuated a useless conflict ~~~and became highly unethical with the politics vis-a-vis the Democrats leading to the Watergate break-in~~
~~~Seems Bush is like a mix of these two ~~ A Nixter ~~:)
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:06 amBush and those right-wing Fundies are Christians minus the Christ part. Hating and excluding others in the name of Christ is as about as anti-Christ as they come, yet they are so self-riteous. How sad.
May 22nd, 2006 at 4:57 pm[...] President Bush once again labeled a political milestone in Iraq as the crucial “turning point.†“We can expect the violence to continue, but something fundamental changed this weekend,†Bush said. [...]
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:02 am[...] Asked today whether the verdict would be a factor in the U.S. elections, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said, “You are absolutely right, it will be a factor.” Snow said the verdict “may fit into a larger narrative about an Iraqi government that has been doing what the president has said all along.” He portrayed the decision as yet another “turning point” for Iraq. “This is a benchmark episode, where the Iraqi people are taking control of their own destiny,” he said. [...]
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:32 pm[...] Asked today whether the verdict would be a factor in the U.S. elections, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said, “You are absolutely right, it will be a factor.†Snow said the verdict “may fit into a larger narrative about an Iraqi government that has been doing what the president has said all along.†He portrayed the decision as yet another turning point for Iraq. “This is a benchmark episode, where the Iraqi people are taking control of their own destiny,†he said. [...]
November 4th, 2006 at 12:18 am[...] administration and its allies have been quick to hail “turning points” in Iraq. As Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) noted, “When you’ve ‘turned the [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 12:35 pm