Flashback, Bush on the Iraq war: ‘Just a comma’
Just a comma
Posted September 24th, 2006
Ill have the transcript up as soon as CNN posts it, but George W. Bush appeared on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer this afternoon and made one of those stunning remarks...Blitzer asked the president to respond to the nightmare that Iraq has become, but Bush wouldnt hear of it. He dismissed the ongoing crisis as just a comma.
Update: Heres the transcript:
BLITZER: Lets move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war
. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.
BUSH: Yes, you see you see it on TV, and thats the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But theres also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people
. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is my point is, theres a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)
Even by Bushs already-low standards, it was a stunning comment. Were talking about a war that has claimed 2,700 American lives and seriously injured 20,000 more. Its a crisis that has, by any reasonable measure, made the threat of terrorism against Americans considerably worse. Its a misadventure that has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, to fight a war sold under false pretenses, and mismanaged with almost child-like incompetence.
Asked to explain himself, the president is unconcerned. Everything were seeing is just a comma. Im sure that will bring comfort to the families of those who have sacrificed so much for Bushs mistakes.
Now, I think I know what the president means. As he sees it, history takes a long view, so three and a half years of mistakes, violence, poor judgment, and corruption are minor details that will be easily overlooked by a long-term triumph. Or so Bush says. Of course, by this logic,
everything is just a comma. Every life, every conflict, and every generation can be dismissed and made to appear trivial by backing up enough degrees.
- more -
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8551.html
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/24/le.01.html
Bush's "comma":
Iraqi Security Forces (post-Saddam) killed:
16,623
Coalition forces killed:
4,805 (4,487 U.S.)
Contractors killed:
1,554
Awakening Councils killed:
1,002+
Iraqi combatants killed (invasion period):
7,60011,000
Insurgents (post-Saddam) killed:
21,22126,405 (2003-2011)
Civilians killed: hundreds of thousands up to
1 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War