In a news conference on December 7, 2006, President “Bush bristled when a reporter asked if he was ‘still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq.’ He glared at the reporter. ‘It’s bad in Iraq,’ he said sharply. ‘Does that help?’ ” – Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 514 […]
12/6/2006
“On December 6 [2006], [President] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney hosted the Iraq Study Group [ISG], a bipartisan collection of elder statesmen assigned by Congress to recommend a way forward in the war. …’The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating,’ read the first line of the group’s report. The report outlined a path […]
12/6/2006
“…the Iraq Study Group, led by former Congressman Lee Hamilton [D-IN] and [former Secretary of State] Jim Baker…counseled a withdrawal in light of their conclusion [on December 6, 2006] that ‘stability in Iraq remains elusive and the situation is deteriorating.’ ” – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 707 […]
12/6/2006
The Iraq Study Group’s report of December 6, 2006 “urged that the ‘Iraqi government should accelerate assuming responsibility for Iraqi security by increasing the number and quality of Iraqi Army brigades. While this process is under way, and to facilitate it, the United States should significantly increase the number of U.S. military personnel, including combat […]
12/6/2006
According to a report released by the Iraq Study Group on December 6, 2006: ” ‘The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating…’ This grim finding, the consensus view of political and military experts from across the spectrum, ultimately was the real contribution of the group. ‘It stopped all the happy talk about how well […]
12/6/2006
“On December 6 [2006], the Iraq Study Group [ISG] finally released its report, ‘The Way Forward–A New Approach.’ Describing the situation in Iraq as ‘grave and deteriorating,’ the ISG report did not shy away from pointing out that the new Iraqi army, the police force, and even Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki often showed greater […]
12/6/2006
“After a tsunami of advance publicity, the commission of five Republicans and five Democrats [that constituted the Iraq Study Group] announced at a packed news conference in Washington on December 6 [2006] that ‘the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating,’ and urged a complete overhaul of the president’s [Bush’s] strategy. The panel, led by […]
12/6/2006
The Iraq Study Group (ISG), a bipartisan panel appointed by Congress to assess and make recommendations regarding the situation in Iraq, released its report on December 6, 2006. “The report said, ‘The primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq should evolve to one of supporting the Iraqi army. …By the first quarter of 2008, subject […]
12/4/2006
After Representative John Murtha (D-PA) voted to authorize war in Iraq, he visited the region in late November 2002. In an interview with author Stephen Hayes on December 4, 2006, Murtha said: ” ‘I came back convinced that I’d made the right vote because the military said to me: *We’ve got a red line drawn […]
12/1/2006
“On 1 December 2006 a report [leaked from the Iraq war logs] says that a named commander from the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the main Shia leader of resistance to the occupation [in Iraq], met Iranian officials–reported to be from the Revolutionary Guard Corps–at an unofficial border crossing at al-Shib to pick up three […]