Bush’s claim that this whole thing was Maliki’s idea, the president’s wrong on two counts. One, the original ideas came from NSA Stephen Hadley and were presented to Maliki, not the other way around. And two, Maliki actually wanted the opposite — a lower American profile in the war, not a bigger one.
What’s particularly odd about all of this is it’s transparently false. No one seriously believes Bush’s version of events at all, so there’s really no point in him even trying to mislead people, worse yet mislead the very troops who’ll be fighting the war. If everyone, including the president’s allies, freely accept that he’s bucked his generals and pushed this on Maliki, why bother creating a bogus narrative?
In this case, the truth was just as easy to tell as the lie, but for reasons that defy comprehension, Bush decided to go with dishonesty over veracity. When it comes to the war, lying just seems to come easier to him.
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