PressCoverage

wait... i thought Bush was letting the commanders on the ground iron out this last-ditch surge, not another thinktank ... oops... nope... lied to again...



Earlier this month, President Bush affirmed his commitment to his escalation plan, stating, “I’m going to remind the people in the audience today that troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C.”

But the DC Examiner reports today that “a bunch of arm chair generals in Washington” from the American Enterprise Institute “almost single handedly convinced the White House to change its strategy” in weekend meetings last December. The AEI escalation plan reportedly “won out over plans from the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command”:

Arm chair generals help shape surge in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - When it comes to the troop surge in Iraq, a bunch of arm chair generals in Washington are influencing the Bush Administration as much as the Joint Chiefs or theater commanders.

A group of military experts at the American Enterprise Institute, concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a calamitous failure in Iraq, almost single handedly convinced the White House to change its strategy.

They banded together at AEI headquarters in downtown Washington early last December and hammered out the surge plan during a weekend session. It called for two major initiatives to defeat the insurgency: reinforcing the troops and restoring security to Iraqi neighborhoods. Then came trips to the White House by AEI military historian Frederick Kagan, retired Army Gen. John Keane and other surge proponents.

More and more officials began attending the sessions. Even Vice President Dick Cheney came. "We took the results of our planning session immediately to people in the administration," said AEI analyst Thomas Donnelly, a surge planner. "It became sort of a magnet for movers and shakers in the White House." Donnelly said the AEI approach won out over plans from the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command. The two Army generals then in charge of Iraq had opposed a troop increase.

PatsWSB47

The group was made up of miltary experts. Anyway, it also states that the present strategy in Iraq was not doing anything so they realized a different stategy was needed. All we heard was "change the course" and "we never had enough boots on then ground" from everyone it seems(and rightly so). Now we change the stategy, and we see progress in some areas and now that is being attacked. I even saw a retired general on MSNBC last week discussing the surge and he said we finally got it right, though it may be too late because not enough time will be given for it to truely work. Get Bush, Hate Bush. I guess technically these guys aren't boots on the ground, but they have a hell of a lot more expertise in military matters then Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the grinning democrats(sorry to plagiarize you Harry). That was Bush's point.

PC it may do you well to actually consider even in the slightest degree another point of view occasionally. You won't come off as such a-know-it-all.

Real World

Earlier this month....

In December....

Hmmm......

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

patsfan13

If the surge is producing results who cares whose idea it is? Sounds like people trying to take credit for a good idea. Patraeus did the same approach in The Kurdish areas that he is now using in Aabar and Baghdad.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Pujo

I don't doubt that, but it's still a far cry from "I'm going to listen to the commanders on the ground." I mean, technically these guys are on the ground (which would likely be Bush's explanation if questioned), but it sounded like he meant Iraqi ground, not American ground.

Real World

It's quite simple. They came up with a surge strategy at the end of last year, and implemented it. The man in charge od said strategy, General Petraeus, is in charge once it was implemented. What's the fuss about?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

patsfan13

The fuss is about being unhappy that something may be going well for the US in Iraq.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

PatsWSB47

Point taken. But by the same token Nancy Pelosi's gang of grinning "experts" are a lot farther removed from the boots on the ground than the group outlined in this piece. That again is the point Bush has always tried to make.

Harry Boy

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

Pujo

I think Bush is correct on the point that Congress shouldn't dictate war tactics, it doesn't make sense to run a war by comittee. But Congress has a legitimate role in determining long-term strategy (just like a board of directors determines a corporation's strategy, and the CEO develops the tactics to executes it), like whether we should be fighting a war there at all. Congress' "meddling" has been of the strategic type. Bush is saying he should control the mission, Congress is saying there should be no mission. They both speak some truth.