George Bush aka The Sock Puppet
Too_Many_Tools
Time to come home boys...it's a lost cause.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051014/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq&printer=1
Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated
Press Writer
It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions
President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were
choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's
vote on a new Iraqi constitution.
"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense
secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The
president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."
Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall
security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote
and efforts to train Iraqi troops.
As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's
42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit - the birthplace of
former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the
wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.
A brief rehearsal ensued.
"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy,
you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.
"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
And so it went.
"If the question comes up about partnering - how often do we train
with the Iraqi military - who does he go to?" Barber asked.
"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit
- the hometown - and how they're handling the political process,
who are we going to give that to?" she asked.
Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and
reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the
mission was complete.
"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're
never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total
victory," Bush said.
The president told them twice that the American people were behind
them.
"You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.
Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they
approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the
public now say the Iraq war was a mistake.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was
coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were
expressing their own thoughts. With satellite feeds, coordination often
is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he
said.
"I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them
know what to expect," he said, adding that the president wanted to talk
with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the
situation.
The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation.
The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of
the chat.
"Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I like you."
On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said:
"Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a
success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election,
we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan.
We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir,
they're doing everything."
On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo
from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the past 10
months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the
confidences of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next
month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces
conducting independent operations."
Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11,
2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their
recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began
the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks and were proud to continue it in Iraq.
"I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then joked: "I probably
look familiar to you, too."
Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an
advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the
event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S.
troops involved were officers, he said.
"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a
nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be
talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of
captains."