Snow Shrugs Off Post-War Failures: ‘Everybody Gets It Wrong At The Beginning Of A War’

[rodeodance]

Snow Shrugs Off Post-War Failures: ‘Everybody Gets It Wrong At The Beginning Of A War’

On Friday, former White House spokesperson Tony Snow was interviewed on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

Maher discussed how woefully unprepared the Bush administration was for post-invasion Iraq. “People paid in blood for him to learn” that more troops were needed for post-Saddam Iraq, Maher said to applause and cheers from the audience. “Even if this did work,” he said, referring to the surge.

Snow tried to shrug off Maher’s statements, declaring that “everybody gets it wrong at the beginning of war”:

MAHER: In fact, the smarter people in his administration said to do just that. “We need more boots on the ground. We need more security.” But because he’s stubborn and stupid, he said, “No, let’s do it Rumsfeld’s way. Let’s do it the light way.” So it took him five years to come around to what should have been done five years ago. And — and while he was learning on the job, people paid for that in blood. <…>

SNOW: Well, wait a minute. Look, I don’t know where to start, but I’ll start at the beginning. Number one, when it comes to the war, everybody — it’s great to be a backseat general, and everybody gets it wrong at the beginning of a war. But there were plenty of — no, it’s true.

Watch a portion of the show here:

[OneGrassRoot]

1. He is so smug and arrogant...

Matt Taibbi kicked his butt, IMHO. Didn't let him get away with anything.

I was hoping they were going to ask about the new press secretary's vast knowledge of history (Cuban Missile Crisis, anyone?). That would have been BEAUTIFUL!

[InternalDialogue]

2. More lowering of the bar...

Not "everybody" gets it wrong at the start of a war, Tony. One side generally does, and that's the side that finds itself losing.

So, Tony, don't go rationalizing bad decisions as something "everybody" does. Bush/Cheney got it wrong, and there are motivations and reasons they did.

But by all means, Tony, if you must, lower that bar a little more...

[gratuitous]

3. Everybody, Tony?

Gee, I seem to recall millions of people marching in the streets who were dead right, right from the beginning. No Tony; you and your bloodthirsty band were absolutely wrong, willfully and criminally so. In a just world following the rule of law that you and your political comrades claim to revere, you'd be answering your next questions under oath at a tribunal convened at The Hague.

[DCKit]

4. It was painful to watch, but informative.

Snow still carrying water for *. Go figure.

BTW, when did Congress declare that the illegal occupation of a sovereign country had become war? I missed that one.

[Capn Sunshine]

5. what's the point of this post? It doesn't slam Obama

I find that very confusing, after all, isn't a challenge to Democratic party status quo more important than how we got fucked by an organized bunch of neocon warhawks?

[featherman]

6. On edit: maybe he meant to say "Everybody gets it wrong

by beginning a war" for no particular reason

[tanyev]

7. Tony's starting to sound like Dr. Nick Riviera.