One Utah

It’s not just Dick Cheney. President Bush can also sound amazingly like a movie super-villain. From the Washington Post:

Getting lost in the media furor over McClellan’s memoir is the new autobiography of retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, who is scathing in his assessment that the Bush administration “led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions.”

Among the anecdotes in “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story” is an arresting portrait of Bush after four contractors were killed in Fallujah in 2004, triggering a fierce U.S. response that was reportedly egged on by the president.

During a videoconference with his national security team and generals, Sanchez writes, Bush launched into what he described as a “confused” pep talk:

“Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.”

“There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”

A White House spokesman had no comment.

The ambush of the Blackwater convoy in Fallujah on March 31, 2004 was an attempt to provoke the U.S. Marines, who had recently taken over responsibility for Anbar Province. The intended Marine Corps strategy of foot patrols, less aggressive raids, humanitarian aid, and close cooperation with local leaders was suspended on President Bush’s orders to mount a full-scale assault to clear insurgents from Fallujah.

Tom Engelhardt has more. Apparently, Bush was angry at Moqtada al-Sadr as well as at the Sunni insurgents in Fallujah. “At the end of this campaign al-Sadr must be gone,” he insisted to his top advisers. “At a minimum, he will be arrested. It is essential he be wiped out.”

In 2004, US forces also had to fight the Shiite Mahdi Army in Najaf while the situation in Fallujah still wasn’t under control. For a short time, it was a worst-case scenario– battles going on simultaneously with Sunni and Shiite insurgents, supply lines disrupted, no combat units left in reserve.

Today, al-Sadr remains arguably the most powerful Iraqi Shiite politician. The Sadrist movement provides more social services, and commands more loyalty than the US-supported Green Zone government.

This entry was posted Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 am and is filed under Disaster, George W. Bush, Iraq, National Politics, This Blog, War, War Crimes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.