BILL, if you believe Bush, in the last year of his presidency, was bowing to political pressure, which US political party do you think he was yielding to as the 2008 Presidential election approached?
And please explain how my posting a single fact, that the draw down of US combat forces in Iraq was per a timetable agreement signed by Bush, is demonizing him? I was merely posting a factual reminder in response to Viceroy's statement "The American troops leaving when they did and in the manner in which they did was akin to a doctor removing the stitches before the scar had sufficient time to heal. Is it any shock that the festering wound is now infected?"
This is a statement which I agree with 100%. And I am far far far from an Obama cheerleader. I detest what he has done with his presidency as much as I detested GW Bush's.
But let's also not forget, this isn't a matter of 20/20 hindsight. Remember the Pottery Barn rule?
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According to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cited the rule in the summer of 2002 when warning President George W. Bush of the consequences of military action in Iraq:
'You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people,' he told the president. 'You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all.' Privately, Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called this the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it.[4]
Powell confirmed the quotation on Jonathan Dimbleby's "Dimbleby" program on April 30, 2006.
Democratic candidate John Kerry cited the rule during the first debate of the 2004 Presidential election on September 30, 2004:
Powell denies using the term "pottery barn rule", but stated:
"It is said that I used the “Pottery Barn rule.” I never did it; [Thomas] Friedman did it … But what I did say … [is that] once you break it, you are going to own it, and we’re going to be responsible for 26 million people standing there looking at us. And it’s going to suck up a good 40 to 50 percent of the Army for years. And it’s going to take all the oxygen out of the political environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_Barn_rule
Anyone that didn't see this coming lives with their head in the sand. Or someplace darker. And anyone thinking we can bomb the world into peace (or at least, into submission) lives in ignorance. And it this day and age it is willful.
“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” - A. Lincoln