Number Three
Bush Flip Flopped on the siege of Fallujah. First he ordered the Marines to attack. Then he reversed his own order and told them to pull out, leaving the town in the hands of the insurgents to this day. This Flip Flop was so harmful that the Marine officer in charge of the aborted siege took the unusual step of criticizing President Bush while still on active duty.
According to an article on MarineTimes.com:
“In a candid interview Sept. 12 with four major newspapers at his command post in Iraq, Lt. Gen. James Conway said senior coalition commanders in Iraq ordered the Marines into Fallujah against his advice and counter to the Corps’ long-term plan to quell the city’s insurgency. Moreover, before Marines could consolidate their gains, they were ordered out, replaced by an unproven local security force cobbled together without the input of senior Marines on the ground there, said Conway, the outgoing commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force.”
This Flip Flop bears a resemblance to Bush’s decision to use Afghan troops at Tora Bora rather than American troops – in both cases the President feared the political consequences of the loss of American troops, lacking the resolve to do what was necessary. And in both cases, the long term result has only been more troops losses and a continued failure to accomplish the task at hand.
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