Bush Boots General Casey Out of Iraq

via Kos, the Washington Post reports that “President Bush is overhauling his top diplomatic and military team in Iraq, as the White House scrambles to complete its new war policy package in time for the president to unveil it in a speech to the nation next week, officials said.”

General Casey has publicly opposed adding more troops to the civil war in Iraq. George W. Bush has publicly stated he’ll make his decisions based on what the commanders tell him. So Bush, instead of listening to Commander Casey, is shuffling him off. Only six months ago, Bush said this,

“General Casey will make the decisions as to how many troops we have there. And that’s important for the families to know. It’s really important. General Casey is a wise and smart man who has spent a lot of time in Baghdad recently, obviously. And it’s his judgment that I rely upon. He’ll decide how best to achieve victory and the troop levels necessary to do so.

I spent a lot of time talking to him about troop levels, and I told him this,; I said, you decide, General. I want your judgment, your advice. I don’t want these decisions being made by the political noise, by the political moment. It’s just unfair to our troops and it’s unfair to their families.”

To be clear – Bush is going against the advice of Commander Casey in order to enact a strategy that no one except John McCain and Joe Lieberman have expressed overt support for. He is doing this because he has no intention of ever pulling American troops out of Iraq and because he will not let reality get between him and an exciting plan.

George W. Bush is flouting his arrogance and stubbornness once again. And once again, he’s using the lives of our troops to do it. George W. Bush’s ego is now the Commander-in-Chief, and the Decider has decided to pour young lives onto this conflict despite the best advice of the most knowledgeable General in the field.