(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Yesterday I wrote about President Bush's citing General John Abizaid as saying "If we withdraw before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here." And in fact, General Abizaid said something much different. It is indeed a fascinating read about Abizaid from March 2005 on many levels. Specifically on what Bush discussed though, I want to excerpt at some length from two discussions Gen. Abizaid had with soldiers in Iraq:

Capt. John Benoit, an artilleryman from the Louisiana National Guard, looked Gen. John Abizaid squarely in the eye and asked bluntly: How's the war going? . . . The insurgency, Abizaid acknowledged, has grown worse over the past year. [Remember this was March 2005!!] There's no defensiveness on that point, though, as he segues into a discussion of why the insurgents--particularly the radical Islamists--must be confronted. "What we can't allow to happen is guys like Abu Musab Zarqawi to get started," Abizaid told Benoit and the soldiers of the 1-141 Field Artillery. "It's the same way that we turned our back when Hitler was getting going and Lenin was getting going. You just cannot turn your back on these types of people. You have to stand up and fight."

. . . A day after he met with the Louisiana guardsmen, Abizaid flew to Al Anbar province to bid goodbye to Maj. Gen. John Sattler before his force is replaced with a new rotation of marines. Generals across Iraq have been talking about the need to have Iraqi forces take on an increased role in fighting insurgents. On the wall of the marines' conference room hangs a sign quoting Lawrence of Arabia. "Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly," it reads in part. "It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them . . . . " Abizaid drove home the same point. "The hardest thing your successors need to do is take their hand off the wheel. What we have to do is set the Iraqis in front to fight the insurgency," he told the marines. "The insurgency will go on long past the time we are gone."

How would the insurgency go on if the insurgents follow us home? It would not of course. Abizaid did not mean what Bush means. Yet again the President of the United States chooses to lie to the American People. It is now old hat. But Abizaid is an interesting figure and there is more to discuss about his statements. I'll do so in extended copy.