Bush Rewrites History: ‘I Never Said The Taliban Was Eliminated’
Bush Rewrites History: ‘I Never Said The Taliban Was Eliminated’
Early this morning, during a press conference in Kabul with Afghan President Karzai, President Bush attempted to paper over his previous declarations of victory over the now-resurgent Taliban. Bush claimed emphatically, “I never said the Taliban was eliminated.” Watch it:
In fact, Bush used the word “eliminated” to describe the state of the Taliban on several occasions:
September 2002: “The Taliban’s ability to brutalize the Afghan people and to harbor and support terrorists has been virtually eliminated.”
April 2002: “With the Taliban eliminated and al-Qaida badly damaged, we have moved into the second stage of our war on terror.”
At other times, Bush prematurely declared victory using similar language:
September 2004: “And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. And the people of Afghanistan are now free.”
December 2004: “In Afghanistan, America and our allies, with a historically small force and a brilliant strategy, defeated the Taliban in just a few short weeks.”
October 2005: “Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence — the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago.”
While coalition forces made significant early progress against the Taliban, President Bush allowed the situation to deteriorate after deciding to invade Iraq in 2003. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, troops and resources have been diverted from Afghanistan. Consequently, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated dramatically in recent years. Currently, the Taliban has a “permanent presence” in 75 percent of the country and exercises control over the country’s “political and military dynamic.”
Likewise, the still-classified Afghanistan NIE reportedly paints a “grim” picture of the country. While Bush deserves credit for trying to bring his current rhetoric more in line with reality, he isn’t allowed to pretend that his past rhetoric wasn’t false.
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Early this morning, during a press conference in Kabul with Afghanistan President Karzai,
– - Secret Service Agent, call name “New Balance,” made everyone shed their shoes before entering the press conference.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pmYou never said a lot of things….unfortunately we have a thing call the internets that help us search and put to light every word you have said in your miserable presidentcy.
As far as I am concerned, you never took the oath of office.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:49 pmI hope that when the history books are written, mention is made of the mainstream media’s culpability in all that has been allowed to happen.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pmBush lying? Imagine that!
December 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pmHave you got that turd shiny yet George?
December 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pmDamnit!
Where’s my shoe?
INCOMING!
December 15th, 2008 at 2:56 pmAt least now the gop doesn’t get to write the history books. It aint going to be like the raygun era where bush I was able to cover for raygun……this is out in the open, exposed and the gop owns the failures of the last 8 years. Just the facts.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:00 pmBushitCo Revisionism is a little bit like Mad Magazine.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pmWhat? Me Worry?
Working hard for that 18%, ain’t he?
Sheesh.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pmNow that’s Clintonesque word pasing.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pmThe secret was out as must of us Military families got emails from soldiers that the idiot was on the way. Baghram is a very safe and nice people. Our troops given respect to the Afghan people and they life our troops. Now one day Cheney came to Baghram and the post was fired apon for the first time. After Cheney left things went back to normal. Now Bush is visiting and who knows what will happen but he will have a wag the dog scene this time because it might be more then a dirty shoe being tossed at him. Bush/Cheney are hated by all citizens in the Middle East and the puppet Law Makers are getting paid.
I told our soldiers that George W. Bush had the Taliban as his guest when they visited the US. Yes Bush called them his friends and gave them a US tour. I guess the love is gone now.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:11 pmHe doesn’t have to work hard for them. They aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pmBush is the taliban. And his days are numbered.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pmTheir relationship turned sour in early 2001. Bush wanted the Taliban to allow a Unocal pipeline through Afghanistan, and they turned him down. He told them they could “choose between a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs.” We know how that turned out.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:19 pmI just had this cartoon image of Bush splattered spread eagle on the bottom of a tennis shoe with the brand name “History”. “Just Do It!”, indeed.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pmthe taliban? you mean the group the uber republiscum ronnie raygun subsidized in the 80’s, that taliban?
December 15th, 2008 at 3:27 pmJust like everything else this brainless wonder says, it will be argued that his comments are ‘technically’ true…. he’s the posterchild for symantical argument for why his statements are ‘true’
December 15th, 2008 at 3:48 pmAwwww, now, crap – it would be news if Chimpy WASN’T lying and revising history.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:57 pmIt is amazing that the Neocons seem to forget there is a thing called the internets.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pmBush lies, repeatedly and with impunity. He’s Baghdad Bob with a fake Texas accent and a fake ranch to go with it.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:04 pmYouTube has a liberal Bias ?
December 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pmWhat?! Did they have a History Revision class at Yale or wherever he went?
December 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pmIn other words, the right-wing propaganda machine can’t control it.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:07 pmBush is a liar. Its what he does, its who he is.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pmWhoop! Whoop! Whoop!
December 15th, 2008 at 8:30 pmRevisionist History Alert!
Bush Legacy Project At Work!
Revisionist History Alert!
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
Bush also said ‘mission acomplished, he told us that Saddam had WMD and were in touch with Al-Queida, that Saddam was responsible for 9/11, and that the USA did not Torture…
We all know what ‘cocaine’ and alchohool does to people…
December 15th, 2008 at 10:35 pmWorst.
(lying, c**ksucking, motherf**king)
President.
EVER.
December 16th, 2008 at 2:36 am