Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Bushspeak: Leave Means Don't Leave
This was White House spokesman Tony Snow, just last Wednesday:
As for our occupation, the United States would like to be able to leave as quickly as possible. The Iraqis would, too. But the Iraqis say, don't leave until the job is done. We agree. It is important to win in Iraq as defined by a free democracy that sustains, governs, and defends itself.
A reporter asked, "When did the Iraqis say that?"
"They've said it on a number of occasions; they've made it known," Snow responded.
This is from Snow's press briefing only yesterday:
Again, Iraq is a sovereign government. The United States does not issue orders to the Prime Minister. What we do is in support of that government, and we do it in full consultation with the government. The President also did read out his meetings with Mr. Hashemi and Mr. al Hakim, both of whom had also reported to the Prime Minister
Did Snow just mention Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi? As the BBC reports:
Iraq's vice-president claims Tony Blair was "brainwashed" by President Bush into not setting a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
....He later told the BBC: "After a lengthy discussion with [Tony Blair]...I got the impression that he was becoming convinced about my team and he promised to take up this matter with President Bush within a couple of days.
"But I was observing the joint press conference that he made with President Bush after his visit and I saw him talking about something quite different, which gave me an impression that he raised this subject with President Bush and eventually he just changed his mind."
"I think he discovered that Mr Bush is still adamant that he's not going to declare some sort of timetable for withdrawal to avoid passing wrong messages to terrorism," he said.
Sure doesn't seem to me like realism is back.
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