The White House is today admitting that all of the Republicans' talk over the past few weeks about progress in Iraq and the success of "the surge", all that stuff about ""Remember the rug" and "five rugs for five bucks" and "unarmored humvee" and "day by day, block by block" and hearts and minds and al-Maliki understands, and, you know, all of that, all that stuff about the impending success of the escalation, was, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit.
This, two days after the Democrats in Congress finalized the defense supplemental spending bill with deadlines intact.
If you needed further proof that all the talk of progress in Iraq was bluff, a hoax designed for exactly one purpose: to force Democrats to blink, this ought to be it.
New York Times, today:
The White House Scales Back Talk of Iraq Progress
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: April 28, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 27 — The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until September, and many of Mr. Bush’s top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will be limited, according to senior administration officials.
To repeat: just two days after Democrats passed the bill through conference committee, the White House puts this "I guess we didn't really mean it" story out.
Just so we understand what the President is now "Scaling Back", let's remind ourselves of some of his words over the past month.
Quotes from the President, April, 2007:
"Day by day, block by block, Iraqi and American forces are making incremental gains in Baghdad," he said.
April 20, 2007
The maps show the dramatic changes taking place in Ramadi, which happens to be the capital of Anbar province. The red-shaded areas in the first map show the concentration of al Qaeda terrorists in the city two months ago.
April 20, 2007
Iraq's leaders have begun meeting their benchmarks -- and they've got a lot left to do.
April 20, 2007
And what I'm telling you is, according to David Petraeus, with whom I speak on a weekly basis, we're beginning to see some progress toward the mission -- that they're completing the mission.
April 10, 2007
Just as the strategy is starting to make inroads, a narrow majority in the Congress passed legislation they knew all along I would not accept.
April 4, 2007
And General Petraeus, who is a reasoned, sober man, says there is some progress being made. And he cites murders and -- in other words, there's some calm coming to the capital.
April 3, 2007
Well that was all just, as we say, "lying", you see. Political gamesmanship, as it were. Here's a particularly good one:
THE PRESIDENT: No, you. The cute-looking one. (Laughter.)
Q Thanks so much. A lot of the disagreement, sir, over the way you're handling Iraq, disagreements from the public and Congress, stems from the belief that things are not working, despite the surge. The Iraqis have met few, if any, of the benchmarks that were laid down for them so far. Senator McCain walked in the Baghdad marketplace with air cover and a company of troops. But people don't believe that this can work, and they question the continued sacrifice of U.S. troops to help make it work.
-- snip --
[THE PRESIDENT:] You've said the Iraqis haven't met any obligations; I would disagree with your characterization. They have said that they will send Iraqi forces into Baghdad to take the lead, along with U.S. troops, to bring security to Baghdad, and they've done that. They said they'd name a commander for Baghdad; they have done that. They said they'd send up -- they'd send troops out into the neighborhoods to clear and hold and then build; they're doing that. They send they would send a budget up that would spend a considerable amount of their money on reconstruction; they have done that. They're working on an oil law that is in progress.
April 3, 2007
Note especially that Bush mentioned progress on the Oil Law in his answer to "the cute-looking one".
Well, upon further reflection, it now comes to the attention of the White House that the White House was just lying about all that. Today's New York Times story again provides contrast:
Several American officials who have spoken recently with Mr. Maliki say they believe that he would like to achieve the kind of political reconciliation that Mr. Bush outlined in January as the ultimate goal of the troop increase. But they say the Iraqi prime minister appears to have little ability to manage the required legislation, including bills requiring fair distribution of oil revenues among Iraq’s Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and reversing the American-led de-Baathification that barred many Sunnis from participation in the new government.
In other words, the Republicans finally and completely failed to bully the Democrats into passing a no-strings bill. That's what the Republican rhetoric about progress in Iraq was all about in the first place. It had nothing to do with actual conditions in Iraq, or the truth. The entire function of the pom-pom waving was to extend the occupation: to scare Democrats into passing a supplemental with no timeline attached.
But the bluff didn't work.
US Congress sets timeline for Iraq withdrawal
by Charlotte Raab
Thu Apr 26, 4:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Defying President George W. Bush's veto threat, the US Congress Thursday set a timeline to withdraw US troops from Iraq, with a top Democrat saying it sets "a new course, away from a civil war with no end in sight."
The little hoax failed, the Democrats didn't blink, and now the very next weekend, we get this story from the New York Times about the White House "scaling back" talk of progress.
Well, that's just super. That's postively ducky. I tell ya what. Shame on President Bush, for spinning lies about Iraq just to get a bill passed.
Good for the Democrats. They didn't blink in the face of a hoax.
[Update 10:47 AM EST 04/28/07]: A few commenters have correctly pointed out that Democrats in congress are still fairly likely to blink, in the next round. Quite so. I want to make two points though. (1) I think we should cheer the Democrats for not blinking so far, in the face of a ferocious propoganda campaign that went so far as to send Republican congressmembers to a Baghdad market with the message: THINGS ARE GOING SO WELL HOW DARE YOU PUT TIMELINES ON THIS!!! (2) Reid and Pelosi have some time to reflect and regroup. My hope is that the New York Times story will help them prepare for upcoming meetings with the President; to remind Democrats that they are right about the President's game, here. They don't need to back down. He's been bluffing all along.
However, the point that Democrats may still blink is well taken, and I think we need to keep up both the pressure and the praise for our team. Maybe it won't work, but I don't know what else to do.