Quotes of the Morning: The Decider Decides

“Ok… so when I make a mistake I ‘fess up. Yesterday’s Quotes said that Fearless Leader was speaking ‘tonight’, when he was actually speaking, well.. tonight. After two weeks on Monday holidays I was a little off. Mea culpa, mea cupla (and thanks Tim for spotting my error). I now return you to the disaster already in progress.”
-Skippy

“When President Bush goes before the American people tonight to outline his new strategy for Iraq, he will be doing something he has avoided since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003: Ordering his top military brass to take action they initially resisted and advised against.”
-Washington Post, January 10, 2006

“I don't want them to come home without having achieved victory, and we've got a strategy for victory. And the commanders will make the decision. See, that's what the people want. The people don't want me making decisions based upon politics. They want me to make decisions based upon the recommendation from our generals on the ground. And that's exactly who I'll be listening to.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, November 29, 2005

“Ok.. So his old strategy was a ‘strategy for victory’. What does that make his new strategy? Don’t worry though, like the Man said, the Decider isn’t going to be making decisions based on politics.”
-Skippy

“Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on American homeland in our history, the Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction, and endless second-guessing. The party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut-and-run.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 28, 2006

“There -- it's -- you know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 6, 2006

“Bush talks frequently of his disdain for micromanaging the war effort and for second-guessing his commanders. ‘It's important to trust the judgment of the military when they're making military plans,’ Bush told The Washington Post in an interview last month. ‘I'm a strict adherer to the command structure.’"
-Washington Post, January 10, 2006

“As long as he is at the top of the command structure. Other times, like when being asked to show up for his National Guard duty back during Vietnam, not so much.”
-Skippy

“It may also be a sign of increasing assertiveness from a commander in chief described by former aides as relatively passive about questioning the advice of his military advisers. In going for more troops, Bush is picking an option that seems to have little favor beyond the White House and a handful of hawks on Capitol Hill and in think tanks who have been promoting the idea almost since the time of the invasion.”
-Washington Post, January 10, 2006

“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 18, 2006

“Even the announcement of a time frame and mission -- such as for six to eight months to secure volatile Baghdad -- would play to armed factions by allowing them to game out the new U.S. strategy, the chiefs warned the White House.
Then there was the thorny problem of finding enough troops to deploy. Those who favored a ‘surge,’ such as Kagan and McCain, were looking for a sizable force that would turn the tide in Baghdad. But the Joint Chiefs made clear they could muster 20,000 at best -- not for long, and not all at once.”
-Washington Post, January 10, 2006

“They will have a mission, but it in the national interest to not tell anyone about it, and we won’t be able to sustain ‘surge’ troop levels without changing Pentagon policies towards National Guard troops, but hey, what could go wrong?”
-Skippy