Backfire: Bush vs the Commanders

SUMMARY

The Petraeus/Crocker Hearings and the New Rift between Bush and His Military Commanders.

The Bush administration sought to use the latest Petraeus/Crocker hearings to strengthen their case for stalling the drawdown in Iraq. It is now clear that their strategy backfired, and that the hearings, and the months-long prelude to them, exposed a deep split between the President and his Iraq commander on the one hand, and many of the military chiefs on the other. With the President and his allies now on the defensive, progressives must go on the offense and hammer relentlessly at this split. In this memo we outline the three critical areas that progressives should focus on to continue to expose this fault line.

To read this Memo, open the attached PDF