Make Bush Apologize For Not Listening To His Generals

[Tom Rinaldo]

Bush was warned that the U.S. would need a post invasion force of hundreds of thousands to provide some stability and security inside of Iraq. Rumsfeld dismissed that advice, and the General who gave it was ridiculed for his opinion. The State Department planning team for post invasion Iraq was sidelined, and that task was instead given to Cheney's people. Rumsfeld dismissed the early stages of the insurgency against American occupation as just a bunch of "dead enders". All wrong, tragically wrong, deadly wrong, so why hasn't Rumsfeld apologized? Why hasn't Bush dismissed him?

Kerry needs to be crisp and sharp when Bush comes at him asking for an "apology for his remarks". No more talk now about chicken hawks and swiftboaters, just a demand that Bush apologize to the nation both for the mistakes he has made and for those he allowed others to make in his name without facing any consequences. No one has lost their job in the Bush Administration over Iraq War mistakes, except maybe Colin Powell who came the closest of any of them to remotely get it right. The Americans who have paid for those mistakes are the thousands of soldiers coming back maimed or in coffins.

So where is George Bush's apology to the nation now for having been so devastatingly wrong? Whether Bush thinks we should leave or stay in Iraq now, where is his apology for needlessly sending American soldiers off to die in Iraq in the first place? Sent into Iraq without the equipment they needed, and without real plans to guarantee that their mission, unfounded as it may have been, had any chance to succeed?

Hit him hard there John.

[Totally Committed]

1. As usual, a beautifully written post...

You can really write, Tom! And, of course, a great way of looking at this bruhaha that some may have overlooked. Kudos, my friend.

One last thing: Does anyone else see the richness of the irony that has a President who has three books of vocal gaffes (Bushisms, they call 'em), demanding an apology from a Senator with twice his IQ who simply mis-delivered a "joke" at the Presidents expense? This is a President who can't speak in sentences over 4 words long... who can't even pronounce the word "nuclear". No one but me thinks this is verging on hysterically funny?

Okay, then, I like demanding from him an apology for lying us into Iraq just as well...

TC

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. I hadn't thought of that angle TC, you make an excellent point

If the media took even one tenth of Bush's flubs and played them up as if they were serious, and if only one tenth as big a deal was made of them, Bush would be the laughing stock of the whole nation, not just most of it.

[blm]

3. I agree - best part of QandA was when Kerry took a question reMcCain

QUESTION: Senator, John McCain said that you owe an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered this country’s call because they are patriots.

To those people who didn’t get your joke, who may have misinterpreted you as saying the undereducated are cannon fodder, what do you say?

KERRY: I never said that, and John McCain knows I’ve never said that and John McCain knows I wouldn’t say that.

And John McCain ought to ask for an apology from Donald Rumsfeld for making the mistakes he’s made. John McCain ought to ask for an apology from this administration for not sending in enough troops.

He ought to ask for an apology for putting our troops on the line with a policy that doesn’t have an adequate coalition, that doesn’t have adequate diplomacy, where we don’t have a strategy to win.

And what we need is to debate the real issues, not these phony, sideline issues that are part of the politics. Americans are tired — sick and tired of this kind of politics.

They know my true feelings. They know I fought to provide additional money for veterans. They know I fought to provide money for combat for veterans. They know I’ve fought to put money for V.A. They know I’ve honored those veterans.

They know that this is the finest military — and I’ve said it 100,000 times — that we’ve ever had. They know precisely what I was saying.

And they’re trying to turn this because they have a bankrupt policy and they can’t defend it to the nation and they can’t defend it to the world.

KERRY: And I’m not going to stand for this anymore; period. That’s the apology that people ought to get.