Hadley Offers Bait-And-Switch To Russert On Iraq Troop Levels

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RUSSERT: (C)ould the president step forward and say, “I acknowledge we were wrong about WMD, we were wrong about troop levels ...

HADLEY: He’s done a lot of that. He’s acknowledged that ...

RUSSERT: How about troop levels?

HADLEY: He’s, he’s acknowledged that, that in terms of troops we need to be building Iraqi forces to provide greater security. ...

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Russert was clearly referring to the claim Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff at the time, made to Congress, saying the U.S. would need several hundred thousand troops in Iraq. Shinseki's suggestion was refuted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Undersecretary Paul Wolfowitz, among others. Last month, the top military commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, admitted Shinseki was right.

So it's a nice bit of bait-and-switch by Hadley. Bush has admitted to the mistake of not having the right number of troops ... oops, he didn't.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, Russert failed to notice.

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1. "The president has acknowledged something completely different

than what you asked me about! Now what was the question again?" :crazy:

[JABBS]

3. it's such b.s.

and hadley, like so many others in the administration, has that condescending tone, the "it's ok that you're so stupid that you don't realize how right we are" manner.

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4. It amazes me that people like him, Cheney, Rove, etc

can be so thoroughly competent at PR and so thoroughly dishonest at the same time. There must be some kind of self-hypnosis involved.

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5. it's because they are more interested in politics than policy

they have their theories of how things should work. when they don't work out, they go into full spin cycle.

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2. Hadley, another complicit war criminal.