http://antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=9921<snip>When reality unfortunately did impinge, it was primarily viewed as a PR problem. The White House was thrilled by the capture of Baghdad but seemed more irritated by the press coverage of the ensuing looting and pillaging than by the events themselves. Reports Woodward, GOP communications specialist Margaret Tutwiler, who had been sent to Iraq, soon "was getting calls from the White House and Pentagon complaining about the pictures of the looting and chaos on television and in the newspapers. Get those pictures off, they said." Apparently it didn't occur to administration officials that the better approach would be send more troops to suppress the lawlessness.
When better PR proved to be an elusive target, the administration simply went negative. In late 2005, as the consequences of the president's many mistakes were becoming more obvious, he and his minions attacked their critics. Writes Woodward: "The other, bigger message in Bush's speech, however, was that the White House was going to come out swinging at anyone who claimed Bush and Cheney had misled the country before the war. The effect was to equate criticism with undermining the troops."
Such a tactic defines chutzpah. President Bush put American soldiers into danger based on flawed intelligence that he manipulated for his own political ends. Yet in his view anyone pointing out his misbehavior is a traitor who is putting U.S. troops into danger.<snip>
HaHa * is the penultimate loser in chief. He should retire into a mental institution.
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