Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) is “reserving judgment” on the president’s ‘surge’ proposal.
White House to tap former Reagan White House counsel Fred Fielding to succeed Harriet Miers.
I know that for many regular readers of this site, this will largely be a matter of preaching to the choir. But I’ll be watching to see if the question gets raised in the TV coverage Wednesday night.
The president’s ‘surge’ plan is at best supported by a minority of generals, military affairs experts, foreign policy hands, etc. In fact, that’s generous. And it is overwhelmingly opposed by the American people.
Now, ‘experts’ aren’t always right. And popular ideas aren’t always good ideas.
But going back now some four years, who can point to even a single Bush administration decision in Iraq, either strategic or tactical, that didn’t turn out to be either a bad idea or a complete disaster? Anything? One good call?
When the president goes before the people on Wednesday, he is basically saying, trust me.
It’s never really possible to know what the future will bring, especially for most of us who may have gut level instincts about military strategy but little detailed operational knowledge. But given the track record and the fact that few people outside the White House seem to think this is a good idea, what possible basis is there to put any trust in Bush’s latest gambit?
A bit of Fred Fielding’s background probably worth mentioning… he’s a lobbyist.
Hmmm. Seems like that was a question Tony Snow didn’t really want to answer. From today’s White House briefing …
Q Is there something different about the way this plan was put together that makes it more likely to succeed than, say, [Garner], or Bremer, or the Pentagon, State, Allawi, et cetera — was it a procedural —
MR. SNOW: Ask me Thursday. I mean, there are a lot of elements here — again, a lot of the — I can give you a much better answer when we have it, because I can start laying out for you different ways in which things are done. I can’t do it yet. But I’ll be able to give you a better answer —
Q You can’t say something like you’ve reached further to more outside experts, or talked to different levels of commanders, or something like that?
MR. SNOW: All of the above and more.
All of the above and more! Good stuff, right?
Team Force!
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) weighs in hard on the question of limiting funding for Bush’s troop increase in Iraq.