Woodward Hasn't Slowed Bush War Push
Bush Defends Decisions In Wake Of Journalist's Claim That Even Mrs. Bush Wanted To Oust Rumsfeld
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Woodward Pans Bush Over Iraq
In an interview with "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace, Washington reporter Bob Woodward accused President Bush of failing to tell the truth about the level of violence in Iraq.
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Another Vote Against Rumsfeld
According to veteran reporter Bob Woodward, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card tried to convince President Bush to sack Donald Rumsfeld, and the first lady may have been on his side.
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Woodward On Iraq, Kissinger
Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace the White House has misled the American public on the war in Iraq. He also reveals that Henry Kissinger regularly offers advice to President Bush.
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Bob Woodward, talking to Mike Wallace for a 60 Minutes segment, to air Oct. 1, 2006. (CBS)
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The Bush Cabinet
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Iraq: 4 Years Later
The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
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Iraq Insurgency
More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
The book, "State Of Denial," offers a harsh analysis of the Bush administration's handling of the war.
In his weekly radio address, President Bush defended his wartime decisions and fought back against charges that a recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate report shows that the war in Iraq has increased terrorism.
"Some in Washington have selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists in Iraq, we are making our people less secure here at home," Mr. Bush said. "Five years after the 9/11 attacks, some people in Washington still do not understand the nature of the enemy. The only way to protect our citizens at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across the world."
Woodward writes in his new book of fierce efforts inside the White House to get rid of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a revelation that has caused a tremendous amount of concern at the White House.
In Mike Wallace’s interview with Woodward, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT, the reporter also claims that Henry Kissinger is among those advising Mr. Bush.
Woodward writes that several people inside the White House have pushed to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The ranks of those calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation included the president's then Chief of Staff, Andy Card, apparently with the backing of First Lady Laura Bush.
As CBS News correspondent David Martin reports, Woodward tells Wallace that after President Bush was re-elected, Card tried for months to convince the president to fire Rumsfeld.
"It wasn’t working. Card felt very strongly that the president needed a whole new national security team," Woodward tells Wallace.
Laura Bush was also worried that Rumsfeld was hurting her husband, Martin reports. When Andy Card told her that the president seemed happy with Rumsfeld, Woodward says that Mrs. Bush replied, "He's happy with this, but I'm not." Later, she said, "I don’t know why he’s not upset."
"What’s interesting, Andy Card, as White House Chief of Staff, every six weeks set up a one-on-one meeting with Laura Bush. And in the course of these sessions, the problem with Rumsfeld came up, and she voiced her concern about the situation," Woodward tells Wallace.
The First Lady’s office says that's not true, Martin reports, but according to Woodward, Card had at least one other high-level ally: Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell, who himself was leaving the administration, told Card, "If I go, Don should go." But the vice president thought differently.
“Rumsfeld’s his guy. And Cheney confided to an aide that if Rumsfeld goes, next they’ll be after Cheney,” Woodward tells Wallace.
It’s not clear that Rumsfeld knew what Card was up to, but in an interview with Woodward, the Defense Secretary said he told Card that after the election, he would be happy to stay or go, depending on what the president wanted. The president has that he had no intention of changing him.
In the end, it was Card, not Rumsfeld, who left. Rumsfeld hosted a farewell dinner in his honor.
These efforts to get rid of Rumsfeld, apparently continue to this day, CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports. A top Republican strategist told CBS News today that just this week, he heard the president say, "I know the way to keep Americans’ support for the war is to fire Don Rumsfeld. I am not going to do that. It's not going to happen."
Not surprisingly, revelations from the book are causing a tremendous amount of concern at the White House, mostly because what Woodward writes is read and believed, not just in Washington, but all across the country, CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.
Friday, the administration hit back.
“There's a whole lot of stuff here. You know, in a lot of ways, the book's certainly cotton candy. It, kind of, melts on contact. We've read this book before,” Snow said.
Woodward also says that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.
According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It’s getting to the point now where there are 8, 900 attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," says Woodward.
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See all 53 CommentsThank you for your time, and the space to speak my mind and ask my questions. It is no less than I would expect from cbs news.
www.politipoll.net
I love my country, I support our troops but I don't trust the leaders. Bring the troops home, end George's war now!
Well, the shoe is on the other foot now. 'Looking in from the outside' didn't seem to stop the 'republican view' books about Clinton.
Clinton's stupid acts are nothing compared to Bush's stupid acts. At least Clinton didn't cause thousands to die and create 'hate Americans' throughout the world.
Thank God for a free press and people like Woodward, one of the many checks and balances of our republic.
In the 1920s H.L. Mencken said "...On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Sadly, that day has come, and that idiot has created a very dangerous world for us to live in.
Whatever happened to due dilligence and responsible 'Journalism', this is 'Smearalism'.
Its Journalism folks, NOT Smearalism.
God Bless The USA
John Formato
Whitehouse Station NJ
Johnden527@yahoo.com
I support Bush.To defeat terrorists,to avoiding 9/11 again,the war is the only way.
I support Rumsfeld,he did a good job,make a fully succeed in this war.
I support America,It takes the responsible to civilized world.
I am a Chinese.
The one and only thing we really had to back up our actions was that they were the correct thing to do. Iraq was not. It was a lie, and we will now pay the price for a generation, just like we did for Vietnam. Stupid.
This is the leadership of Bush and the Republican majority. I think it's time to dump them. All of them. (And the current batch of Dems are no better - sniveling 2-faced hypocrites) Oust 'em all and start over with intelligent people of vision, like our founding fathers envisioned, not these career politicians getting rich off the rest of us. (How do you explain Tom Delay going from bankrupt pest control guy to multimillionaire in just 10 years on a congressman's salary? Huh? Get a clue, folks - they're writing laws to enrich themselves and their buddies.)
Wow, I guess I've had enough, weouldn't you say? I think we need a whole new driving force in our world. Where is it?
All of you Bush lovers may think this is a cheap attempt to get people to vote Democrat in November, but a lot of Americans have already decided to do that. This book doesn't change anything. Bush is a lame duck, conservatives nationwide are trying to distance themselves from the White House mess to save their own political careers and Conservative Americans are asking themselves - What the hell do we do know?
I'll tell you what to do - vote anything besides republican this November!
I think that if you voted for Bush last election, you should be required to take an IQ test to determine if you should be allowed to vote for things you don't understand this year. Also, we need to do away with this electoral college bull****. Let the people decide their president for a change.
Note to Teapot - People with the IQ of a rattle are what got us here in the first place. Think about it - Osama killed Americans & Bush went after Saddam - Is this right? I don't think so!
When will people understand that every time the president misinforms another piece of your country has been taken away from you?
I would rather 1,000 presidents chasing interns than one who will not do this country the honor and justice it deserves by being spoken to honestly about the events for which he is responsible!
As usual, the Dem's can't win on substance, so all they can do is smear the Republicans.
[Note: Any resemblence between Ulysses S. Grant and Donald Rumsfeld is purely coincidental.]
Perhaps the paparazzi in Hollywood and elsewhere will start taking photos of the pictures that really count, the pictures the military don't want us to see. Forget Lindsey Lohan. We need picture after picture after picture of those coffins coming back from Iraq. Nobody needs to say a word. Just show the visuals. That should be the non verbal mantra of the Democrats. Tony Snow will come up with some kind of ridiculous spin, but a flag draped coffin doesn't need a lot of p.r. Neither do the thousands (what is it now, 100,000?) of innocent Iraqis who have lost their lives in Cheney & Bush's playpen.
He has been Al Queda's poster child for No Jihadist Left Behind.
As usual, the Dem's can't win on substance, so all they can do is smear the Republicans."
Posted by gentlearts
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What did you post when the repug slime machine smeared the Clinton administration for YEARS???.... *** for tat, is what I say.
Woodward's book adds to the growing evidence that we have serious problems in the conduct of this war, politically and militarily. As citizens we should be asking all political leadership, Republican and Democrat, to directly address the issues and stop the spinning.
Bush appears to be in denial about the war. The tide is turning in favor of the enemy. My vote goes to the candidate of either party that directly addresses how to adapt to the changing conditions of the war and identifies what needs to be done next. There is no loss of will here.
Actually, this "confusion" should make you proud to be an American, because it indicates there is still enough free speech in this country for debate to occur. That debate is an important indicator of democracy, and should accompany any election of the leadership.
Obviously, many figures in and out of the GOP now wish Bush actually had the dictatorship he has said publicly he would find convenient. They want something-- anything-- to squelch the floodtide of embarrassing facts about Bush, and have used the bogus "war on terror" for exactly that purpose. If the press finds something scandalous about Bush, the Standard Operating Procedure is to claim the matter is classified.
If you find it difficult to believe Bush nodded approvingly to dictatorship, Bush also said to members of his party, assembled in a private meeting discussing illegal NSA spying, "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's only a GD&^^%%! piece of paper!" And this guy claims to be a leader?
In the runup to election, we can expect all sorts of chicanery to deny established, but embarrassing facts about Bush. The GOP has much to deny, and no amount of spinning and twisting is sufficient to keep the facts at bay any longer.
Conservative hypocrites in perpetual denial need to be put on notice: The State of Denial that you live in is now the Flood of Denial, heading straight over the falls on your "Stay the Course" rhetoric. Woodward leads us once again, to rise like true Americans of courage and to speak truth to power. Our children are dying, and Bush, the incompetent or treasonous cause of it, is attempting to subvert our Constitution of the United States to try and get away with it. It's over buddy, wake up!
"Bob Woodward's book is just another "tool" trotted out to try to slant the upcoming elections.
As usual, the Dem's can't win on substance, so all they can do is smear the Republicans."
It's incredibly hypocritical to condemn one party for doing it without condemning the other for doing the same.
Have you forgotten all the smear campaigns initiated by Republicans against Democrats?
Especially against that idiot Clinton?
Republicans do not have the moral high ground when it comes to smear campaigns.
In this case, it will be interesting to see if Woodwards comments hold true - and are in fact, fact.
I have more respect for him then any politican.
For some reason they same to believe that negative comments about Republicans are all just a conspiracy of lies - meanwhile, they feel they can say whatever they want about Democrats.
Talk about being delusional/paranoid.
Whatever happened to voting for the best person for the job instead of two idiotic political parties that are only interested in helping themselves?
www.politipoll.net
Democrats may or may not understand that this is a "different kind of war", but I think the spectacular failures of this administration in trying to conduct this war shows that they definitely don't know how to fight it. For starters, if you're going to fight the terrorists go where they are. Afghanistan: right on. Iraq: didn't have them until we removed Saddam.
We have a tremendous military. As was stated on 'The McGlaughlin Group', "it's a hammer". Hammers are not effective tools against roaches, however.
Like roaches, terrorism is defeated when you stop their breeding (recruitment).
Although people who believe they are fighting a "holy war" against "crusader" powers would characterize themselves differently, exusmcsgt is exactly right. The key to winning, as with fighting a fire, is to subtract one or more elements of the conflagration.
However, Bush, Cheney and other deadheads like Rumsfeld seem to have only reinforced concrete for brains-- they do not realize their Iraqi military disaster is, itself, a threat to America. Our tax dollars are training locals over the whole MidEast to hate us with passion that will carry them back to NYC and beyond-- this is one theater is which military equipment does not apply.
Without understanding the dynamics of what he has set in motion, this wannabe president sees only one possible response to the threat he helped aggravate-- Big Brother-level governmental security controls over the American people. The Gestapo (or Saddam's own police) would have been delighted to have the equipment Bush is prepared to install to monitor Americans.
Actually, 911 shows nothing of the kind-- you are one of a diminishing circle of victims of the delusion 911 had anything to do with Iraq. Even Bush now admits 911 has no relation to Iraq.
Bush did not fight al Qaeda effectively even when congress and the American people told him explicitly to do so-- "they" were in Afghanistan, but Bush actually stopped fighting al Qaeda to pull American units into place for Iraq. Bush (not Clinton) is the one who failed to pull the trigger when he had the best fix on bin Laden in years of effort, and blew it.
Ironically, the wasted effort in Iraq is actually creating a stronger al Qaeda, which now regards Iraq as its showpiece and demonstration project of success against the "crusaders". Thanks to the ineptitude Bush showed after 911, al Qaeda survived to take root globally. You fail to see al Qaeda does not need Iraq as an operations base-- even 911 came from a Hamburg-based cell, and the cell model has been copied worldwide.
Wrong battlefield, wrong tactics, and leaders who mislead-- all part of the Bush "going away gift" to the American people.
"Why is it all Bush bashing all the time ?"
"Can someone please write about the Kennedy Family Trust located in....Tahiti of all places. Why there? How much inheritance tax paid. Please CBS and Bob Woodward look into this and report. Talk about hypocracy of the Left."
Quite possibly because the Kennedy Families fortune isn't responsible for the deaths of Americans.
Typical though - Right wingers concerned more about money then the lives of Americans.
Pathetic.
Bush et.al. could never sell the concept on its own merits, so we got a succession of false motives. This all about pure, unadulterated American hegemony - nothing more, nothing less.
Add to this hegemony, Americas absolute support of Israel in the horrific treatment of the Palestinians, and you can see why our policies are detested in the middle east.
A good president divides our enemies and unites our allies. Bush et.al. have done just the reverse.
I'll ask you hamiltongrad, how much is downright stubborness worth to you? 10,000 American dead? Another 20 years of this? 10 trillion dollars? We obviously haven't lost/spent enough for you to date. What's a fair price for this boondoogle in your mind?
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