Remember this? "I'll listen to generals." Or, you know, not.

[huskerlaw]

What a difference a few months make! How, exactly did we go from this (Sept. 15, 2006):

And that's the way I will continue to conduct the war. I'll listen to generals. Maybe it's not the politically expedient thing to do, is to increase troops coming into an election, but we just can't -- you can't make decisions based upon politics about how to win a war. And the fundamental question you have to ask -- and Martha knows what I'm about to say -- is: Can the President trust his commanders on the ground to tell him what is necessary? That's really one of the questions.

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.

And this is not a science, but an art form in a way, to try to make sure that a unity government is able to defend itself, and at the same time not be totally reliant upon coalition forces to do the job for them. And the issue is complicated by the fact that there are still al Qaeda or Saddam remnants or militias that are still violent. And so to answer your question, the policy still holds. The "stand up, stand down" still holds, and so does the policy of me listening to our commanders to give me the judgment necessary for troop levels.
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-2.html)

To this (January 10, 2007):

Pentagon insiders say members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have long opposed the increase in troops and are only grudgingly going along with the plan because they have been promised that the military escalation will be matched by renewed political and economic efforts in Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the outgoing head of Central Command, said less than two months ago that adding U.S. troops was not the answer for Iraq.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR2007010901872.html)


Ok, that wasn't really a serious question. I think we all know damn well how we got from one place to the other. Bush never was listening to the generals, and I'd like to thank him for proving it. Now our job is to make sure that everyone is very, very aware of yet another instance of "I say one thing and do another".

Personally, I'm sending this to all of my Republican friends. :)

[billybob537]

1. He listen and ignores

then he fires the ones that wont sell out.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Bush is a BULLY...he only PRETENDS to listen.....he has a deaf ear due to his BULLY CHARACTORISTICS

Read Tim Field....and the BULLY Signs and symptoms....