Bush on Abizaid: "he's a smart guy"

Dan Froomkin reports the following: (excerpts)

Bush [had a] one-hour Oval Office interview yesterday afternoon with a half-dozen conservative journalists.

... Bush said he owes his conviction that leaving equals losing to Gen. John P. Abizaid, the Central Command chief who oversees military operations in the Middle East.

Here's Bush, in his opening remarks:

"Abizaid, who I think is one of the really great thinkers, John Abizaid -- I don't know if you've ever had a chance to talk to him, he's a smart guy -- he came up with this construct: If we leave, they will follow us here. That's really different from other wars we've been in. If we leave, okay, so they suffer in other parts of the world, used to be the old mantra. This one is different. This war is, if they leave, they're coming after us. As a matter of fact, they'll be more emboldened to come after us. They will be able to find more recruits to come after us.

If we leave, they will follow us. That is absurd. Why would terrorists choose to fight the U.S. Army, when they could attack unarmed civilians in the United States. You can be sure, that for Iraq at least, that if we leave, nobody is going to follow anybody anywhere.

And Bush presumably thinks "if we leave, they will follow" is something smart people say.

Clearly, Bush has no concept of what's going on.


posted by Quiddity at 10/27/2006 07:19:00 AM