Bush’s Nose Grows Another Inch

One of the many nicknames I made up to satirically describe the character and personality of GW Bush during his regime is Potomac Pinocchio,  fitting for ome of America’s most dishonest presidents ever. Last week, he told a whopper that made his nose grow another inch.

Last week during his book/legacy polishing tour, President Bush tried to absolve himself from responsibility for the downward spiral that became the war in Afghanistan by the end of his presidency. Host Candy Crowley challenged Bush on Afghanistan saying that Americans are “weary” that U.S. troops are still being killed there after nine years and that Bush “ventured off into a war that began at least on one great false premise unknown at the time.” But instead of taking responsibility, Bush blamed NATO:

BUSH: What happened in Afghanistan was that our NATO allies turned out — some of them turned out not to be willing to fight. And therefore, our assumption that we had ample troops, U.S. and NATO troops, turned out to be a not true assumption and so we adjusted. And I completely disagree with the take eye off the ball. I found that to be empty political rhetoric.

Today on CNN, when Crowley asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen — whom Bush appointed to in 2007 — about Bush’s version of history Mullen contradicted Bush entirely…

…Watch it:

 

Indeed, on Dec. 11, 2007, Mullen said that he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates ignored an urgent request from U.S. commanders in Afghanistan for 50,000 more troops. “In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must,” he said.

But Bush may have to revisit his version of history because the U.S. Army’s official history of the war coincides with Mullen’s view. Reporting on the report, the New York Times noted that American forces were “hamstrung by inadequate resources” and thus “missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early years of the war.” The Times added that “the invasion of Iraq was siphoning away resources. After the invasion started in March 2003, the history says, the United States clearly ‘had a very limited ability to increase its forces’ in Afghanistan.”

It’s also quite ironic that Bush would blame NATO for his incompetence seeing that members of the Atlantic Alliance wanted to be more involved in the war at the beginning but Bush rebuffed their offers… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

We could have be in and out of Afghanistan in short order, but Bush diverted the forces needed into his War for Oil and Conquest in Iraq.  Instead of using the forces that remained to capture Osama and defeat Al Qaeda, he diverted them to a failed attempt to secure the route for a pipeline from The Caspian Sea to Karachi.  The object was to seize control of the huge gas reserves in the Stans from Russia.  Blaming NATO forces for his own incompetence is the act of a coward.