More Iraq Disclosures From Woodward’s Book

Among them: Bush ignored calls from a top Iraqi advisor in 2003 to send more troops to fight the insurgency; Rumsfeld wouldn’t return Rice’s calls until Bush made him do so; the top U.S. general in the Middle East told visitors in 2005 that Rumsfeld has no credibility to defend the war publicly…

N.Y. Times:

The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

The warning is described in “State of Denial,” scheduled for publication on Monday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush’s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.

As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: “I dont want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don’t think we are there yet.”

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