L.A. Times:
..."A lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody," Bush said. "To show you how important this one is, I read it." A moment later he added, as if for emphasis, "This is important."
Give a gold star to George. Of course, the fact that Bush called it 'important' was exactly the same reason he often says he 'understands the american people want X', with X being something sane. The statement will soon be followed by a 'but'. Maybe not at the same podium, but eventually. This one came at the same podium -- a meeting between Bush and Tony Blair.
Agence France-Presse:
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush rebuffed key recommendations from the Iraq Study Group but agreed after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to launch a new Middle East peace push.
The embattled US president announced that Blair would soon travel to the region for talks with Israel and the Palestinians and promised "concerted efforts to advance the cause of peace."
A day after getting the heavyweight Iraq commission's stinging report, Bush kept tight conditions on any talks with Iran and Syria and refused to endorse the panel's target date of early 2008 for withdrawing most US combat troops.
"I've always said we'd like our troops out as fast as possible," he said, while insisting on the need to be "flexible and realistic" and tying any change in troop level to advice from US military commanders, as he has in the past.
So much for that then. As I asked over at my short post site, Griper News; you know what would be nice? If Bush would explain just what the hell the ISG was suppposed to be for. You don't put together a blue ribbon panel just to completely ignore findings. What did all of this political cover, potemkin think tanking, and the pretense of doing something cost us, anyway? $1.3 million -- for a report Bush has thrown in the trash...
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Tags: news | politics | Iraq | war | diplomacy | morons | Iraq Study Group | Bush
