December 19, 2006

bush-presser-12-20-06.jpg In today's Presser, Bush trys to explain his statement from the day before: "We're not winning, we're not losing..."

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Bush: My comment was done in this spirit. I believe we're going to win...we're going to succeed...My comments yesterday reflected the fact that we're not succeeding nearly as fast as I wanted when I said at the time and that conditions are tough in Iraq. I'm going to work with the military and the political leaders to develop a plan to help us achieve the objective.

His responses don't seem to make much sense these days. We all know he's going to work with the military to try and figure this out. Who else is he going to deal with?

Q: If you conclude that a surge in troop levels in Iraq is needed, would you overrule your military commanders if they felt it was not a good idea.

Bush: That's a dangerous hypothetical question. I'm not condemning you, you're allowed to ask anything you want. Let me weight and gather all the recommendations from Bob Gates, from our military, from diplomats on the ground, interested Iraqis point of view and then I'll report back to you as to whether or not I support a surge or not. Nice try.

TPM: The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the White House was promoting the "surge" idea "over the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

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