Bush: “Setting an artificial timetable would send the wrong message to the Iraqis — who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done. It would send the wrong message to our troops — who need to know that we are serious about completing the mission they are risking their lives to achieve. And it would send the wrong message to the enemy — who would know that all they have to do is to wait us out.”
Fact: Then-Gov. Bush: “I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.” [Seattle Post Intelligencer, 6/5/99]
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