"WE LISTEN TO THE GENERALS"

THE CLAIMS:

I'll listen to generals. - Bush, 9/15/2006

I think that the President is going to listen to his commanders on the ground... - Dana Perino, WH press briefing, 4/26/2007

THE TRUTH:

That summer many generals had three major concerns about invading Iraq: the possibility of Saddam's using weapons of mass destruction, the danger of becoming enmeshed in urban warfare, and the worry that a postwar occupation could be costly, especially if the United States had to put in thousands of troop to hold the country together. "I can't tell you how many senior officers said to me `What in the hell are we doing?'" recalled Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold,who had been the J-3, or director of operations on the Joint Staff, since October 2000. In that key job he oversaw the daily employment of U.S. forces around the globe and so was the link between the Pentagon and senior American commanders it the field. Those top officers and their staffs were coming back to Newbold."They just didn't understand," he recalled. "'Why Iraq? Why now?'" They were especially worried about undercutting the counteroffensive against al Qaeda: "All of us understood the fight was against the terrorists, and we were willing to do anything in thatregard—so, 'Why are we diverting assets and attention?'"

SOURCE: Thomas Ricks, FIASCO, page 40