Senior Bush Official: ‘No Trend’ Showing Escalation Is Working
Senior Bush Official: ‘No Trend’ Showing Escalation Is Working
On Tuesday, President Bush gave a speech claiming the Iraq escalation is showing “encouraging signs” of progress. But in today’s Washington Post, a senior Bush administration official acknowledges that “right now there is no trend” showing the escalation is working.
Moreover, officials say the information Bush presented to back up his rosy claims was skewed or flat-out false. A fact check:
President Bush: “General Petraeus recently arrived in the Iraqi capital, and the plan he is executing is in its early stages. … Yet even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs.”
FACT: “Sectarian attacks in Baghdad are down at the moment, but the deaths of Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops have increased outside the capital. … If violence is down in Baghdad, analysts said, it is likely because the Shiite militias operating there are waiting out the buildup in U.S. troops, nearly all of whom are being deployed in the capital. At the same time, Sunni insurgents have escalated their operations elsewhere.”
President Bush: “Iraq’s Council of Ministers recently agreed on legislation they will submit to their parliament on the development of Iraq’s oil resources and the sharing of revenues.”
FACT: “Though Iraqi leaders have agreed on a new framework law for oil resources, the details of how the oil revenue will be divided among competing Iraqi groups remain unresolved.”
President Bush: “The Iraqi government has completed the deployment of three additional Iraqi Army brigades to the capital. They said they were going to employ three brigades, and they did.”
FACT: “A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad said this week that two Iraqi brigades and one battalion of a third have arrived in Baghdad.”
President Bush: “Iraqi and U.S. forces have rounded up more than 700 people affiliated with Shia extremists.”
FACT: “Bush’s report…appears to have little to do with the new strategy. The number is ‘based on captures…since July 2006,’ the military official said. Bush first reported the same roundup — citing 600 captures — last fall.”
On the same day President Bush gave his speech last week, suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Shiite religious pilgrims, “killing at least 130 people in one of the deadliest days of the four-year war.”
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37 Responses to “Senior Bush Official: ‘No Trend’ Showing Escalation Is Working”
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The United States’ continued occupation of Iraq is like a giant, swatting at flies with a club. Sure, he may get a few flies, but he destroys the house, and the flies keep multiplying.
Worse yet, I’m guessing we haven’t stopped funding the covert ops that help fuel the sectarian violence.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:54 amCongress needs to be very specific on why they have not begun Impachment hearings on this criminal and his cabal…
March 10th, 2007 at 10:55 amLet’s get real… Even when it is shown to be an utter failure, the Bushbot will continue to sing his own false praises…
March 10th, 2007 at 10:57 amToday: “The trends show escalation is working”
Yesterday: “Increased terrorist attacks are positive development”
Different days, same spin.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:05 amThe administration and the conservative ditto-heads keep saying that if we set a timetable to pull out, the ‘terrorists’ are listening and we are helping the enemy.
By that logic, the administration and the ditto-heads are helping the terrorists because they are yelling at the top of their lungs ‘look our, we are coming. We are sending in more troops, we are going to kill you’. All this administration did was warn the ‘terrorists’ that we were coming with more troops, so of course they had all the time they needed to figure out that they could hide their armaments and go dormant in Baghdad or move to somewhere else temporarily to continue their operations.
If Bush and the ditto-heads were so concerned about national security and winning, they would not have publicized this ‘escalation’. The only purpose this ‘escalation’ has is a political one here at home, trying to make it look like the president and his ditto-heads are tough and that they are changing tactics to the situation. All the ‘escalation’ will do is get more people killed, and that for the ego of the administration and all the ditto-heads who think that anything else will make them look like ‘girly-men’.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:08 amI’m shocked—shocked!—to discover that this hare-brained scheme isn’t working! Who knew? Oh, yeah…nearly eighty percent of Americans and a sizeable portion of Congress…
March 10th, 2007 at 11:18 amWow, big surprise, the escalation isn’t working. Unfortunately, America does not have the commitment to make anything work (what is it, 500K troops or something?) or the commitment to get rid of this guy and try something else.
I have come to the conclusion that, with a few exceptions, most of the Democrats in Congress are primarily interested in 1) staying in office, 2) toeing the party line, and 3) making money for themselves.
Blog
March 10th, 2007 at 11:46 amToo Little Too late. The only hope we have for avoiding TOTAL DISASTER in the Middle East, is to convey to Iraq’s neighbors (Including Iran and Syria) that are meeting today in the Green Zone the following: 1. . We are leaving and have NO plans for Permanent Bases in Iraq 2. We have NO Plans for coercive regime change in Iran and Syria. Not exactly the neocon agenda, but if Sec. Rice can pull this off, we might be seeing Daylight in Iraq. Four years of a Military Solution have made things progressively WORSE in Iraq.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:49 amOf course we are going to hear a lot about how much Iraq is improving since the escalation. If Bush&Co don’t repeat their false statements at every opportunity, people might not believe them. They must make people believe their “new plan” is working or what little support they have now wil disappear. It’s important to them to keep this going, to maintain their posture in the Iraq, look after Iraqi oil, and control a puppet government so that they can accomplish their desires.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:13 pmThere is no intention of leaving the Iraq (remember the numerous bases and huge embassy we have built) and their up-to-now successful tactic has been to disinform the people, and continue to build themselves a base for all future operations in the region.
Protesters and war resisters from across the country will be speaking out and making their voices heard against military cargo which will be aiding the war effort to be sent out from the Port of Tacoma, Wa. This will take place 11:00 am Pacific time. Will Think Progress, one of the leading liberal web sites on the Internet, finally decide to draw attention to this important event which is designed to disrupt the war machine in Iraq?
March 10th, 2007 at 12:27 pmThere will never be any “trend” showing success in Iraq. As long as the Oil Cartel controls the black-gold then Bush Regime considers that successful.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:41 pmCongress critters are like the guy being told his company has canceled its pension plan, so he says OK but not MY pension. Some members of Congress believe that even if Bush causes the US economy to collapse, they will still get their wage and retirement benefits too. Call it a total disconnect from reality.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:58 pm#1 BNF ~ I see it more like trying to get those pesky flies with incediary grenades in the house.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:06 pmYa know, we need to give this escalation some more escalating time and troops to work.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:13 pmWe should send another, oh, say 100,000 troops and give them, say another year and a half…Hmmm
It ain’t working, numb-f*. After six years, can’t you lie any better than that?
March 10th, 2007 at 1:21 pmUnfortunaterly, Bush has the Power and the Faulty reasoning to let this “surge” play out for a few more months. Give War a Chance!
March 10th, 2007 at 1:24 pmThere are stirrings in the Iraqi Govt. to remove Maliki, and then vote to ask America to Leave Iraq. Maybe thats our last best hope.
Like I said many times before, this administration had definate plan’s and in their evil mind’s all is working well…For the people of the united states and the world it is not going well at all…Everything in mr. evil in charges mind (cheney) is coming to pass…..Scare the country and world into believing they will protect us against all attack’s foreign and domestick, right after deviding the country into thinking one half ( the left is evil) and (the right, their side is good)..Loot the treasury, weaken the military, feed the large oil and rich 2%, inflate prices, ignore all right’s of the people, make new law’s, dismantel the constitution, take over the media so that more propaganda can be spread at will, on and on….Indeed this administration is not a failure to them it is a huge sucess….For us and the world it is devastating and untill we remove all of them from power, hold them accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanety we are in deep shit…..Blessings
March 10th, 2007 at 1:35 pmBush’s evil plans relied on NO SCRUTINY from the Congress. That all changed last November. It is true that Bush made a bold Power Grab, and enriched his wealthy supporters….but the American people are beginning to learn the Details, and I don’t think they like what they are learning.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:55 pmI agree totally, we need a answer from congress on why IMPEACHMENT
March 10th, 2007 at 2:42 pmproceedings aren’t started on Bush & Cheney.
#18 Sharon, Amen, you said it nicely. Everything I was brought up to believe, this administration & cronies, has either destroyed, twisted, lied about, cheated and tromped into the mud. If there is no justice in this life, then I pray, there will be one, in the afterlive for this gang of evil.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:45 pmThere are stirrings in the Iraqi Govt. to remove Maliki, and then vote to ask America to Leave Iraq. Maybe thats our last best hope.
Comment by Badger
Obviously the people of Iraq are more intelligent and better informed than citizens of the US who are led like lambs to slaughter.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:36 pmCertainly even the most dim witted Amercian should be getting glimpses of all the scandals surfacing now. But where is the anger and indignation. Oddly the people who threaten to take to the streets with their weapons are the pro administration hacks who threaten Progressives.
If American settlers had been half as complacent we would still be under the thumb of the Queen.
unbelievable: “Congress needs to be very specific on why they have not begun Impachment hearings on this criminal and his cabal…”
A number of committee hearings are either running or scheduled to run soon. Waxman, for example, will force administration officials and the Libby prosecutor to testify about the heart of the matter which is WHY they felt they had to out a CIA agent. Dems are also holding hearings on missing taxpayer money in Iraq, intelligence tampering leading up to the war and a variety of other things. The proper legal procedure is that impeachment charges are written up if evidence of impeachable crimes is exposed in congressional hearings. Come on, unbelievable, these aren’t Repubs we’re talking about. They have at least some respect for the law.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pmThe Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton without the full support of the American people….the result–Clinton won reelection handily.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:58 pmI’ll bet there’s plenty of outrages that Bush has been keeping from the American people, and Waxman is just the guy to expose them. The time will be right when the people Clamor for Bush’s removal.
ALL SCHMUCK CHIMPya HAD TO DO WAS STROLL OVER TO Israel WHERE ANY JOE BLOW COULD HAVE TOLD HIM “ESCALATION? SO, NU, IT VOULDN’T WOIK!!!!!” And they’d be CORRECT!!!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 6:29 pmCall you rep and your senators. Tell them it is a runaway train, gaining speed. We are funding two sides of this war, creating 100 of thousands of more terrorists and setting the stage for a potential nuclear holocaust. Tell them !!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 8:15 pmDoes anyone believe Bush? Sadly, yes. About 50 million diehard end of the liners are seeking a position in his new world order.
March 10th, 2007 at 9:53 pmThis Presadent Bush is ruining our country!Anyone who voted for this tyrant should be slapped. Not only are we going to loose this undeniable stupid war, but he let Big Oil get rich off the sweat and blood of young Americans!
March 11th, 2007 at 11:00 am[…] Think Progress » Senior Bush Official: ‘No Trend’ Showing Escalation Is Working [link] […]
March 11th, 2007 at 1:11 pm[…] after the Washington Post reported that President Bush’s rosy claims about escalation were misleading or false, it runs an op-ed by Robert Kagan, William Kristol’s frequent writing partner, titled […]
March 11th, 2007 at 2:36 pm[…] other posts on Think Progress, you get the idea that they would not agree that the surge is working at all. Their fact check is based entirely on a Washington Post article. “If I were the president, […]
March 11th, 2007 at 7:12 pm[…] A senior Bush administration official acknowledged recently to the Washington Post that “right now there is no trend” showing the escalation is working. While sectarian attacks in Baghdad are down, […]
March 22nd, 2007 at 4:08 pmSunni vice-president damned near killed(by one of his bodyguards), UN Secretary General almost bombed, carbombs daily; where’re the encouraging signs?
March 25th, 2007 at 9:10 pmHow many readers know what numbers are represented by all the reports of brigades and battalions? Has anyone got a nice little mnemonic to help sort this out? Aside: wouldn’t that be a great question to ask the commander-in-chief of these forces?
March 25th, 2007 at 10:46 pm[…] A senior Bush administration official acknowledged recently to the Washington Post that “right now there is no trend” showing the escalation is working. While sectarian attacks in Baghdad are down, […]
March 28th, 2007 at 8:51 pm[…] Tal Afar is a victim of Bush’s escalation, which has displaced sectarian violence from Baghdad to other areas of the country. Deaths of Iraqi civilians and troops have actually increased outside of the capital. […]
March 29th, 2007 at 8:34 pmcheck criminal
I found your post comments while searching Google. Very relevant especially as this is not an issue which a lot of peaople are conversant with.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:13 pmMichelina
they begin to see it as possible.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:22 am