Man Overboard (Soon)

"Over the past 12 months, as optimism collided with reality, Mr. Bush increasingly found himself uneasy with General Casey’s strategy. And now, as the image of Saddam Hussein at the gallows recedes, Mr. Bush seems all but certain not only to reverse the strategy that General Casey championed, but also to accelerate the general’s departure from Iraq, according to senior military officials."

-- New York Times, Dec. 31, 2006

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"In other words, if you say, I'm going to rely upon their judgment, the next question is, how good is their judgment; or is my judgment good enough to figure out whether or not they know what they're doing? And I'm going to tell you I've got great confidence in General John Abizaid and General George Casey. These are extraordinary men who understand the difficulties of the task, and understand there is a delicate relationship between self-sufficiency on the Iraqis' part, and U.S. presence."

-- TPM Cafe, "Bush Repeatedly Gushed
With Praise for General Casey,"Jan. 2 2007
(quoting George W. Bush, Sept. 15, 2006)

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"Bush is a man paralyzed by a need to salvage his own historical legacy, a man so personally invested in a failed policy that he cannot allow himself to see it for what it is, much less fix it.
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It's time to stop coming up with ways of providing Bush "political cover" for leaving Iraq; he doesn't want it. ... The only way significant change will occur is if Bush finds himself so politically isolated that those around him feel it necessary to stage some sort of intervention."

-- Iraq in a Nutshell, Anonymous Liberal at
Glenn Greenwald Jan. 2 2007