Friday, February 29, 2008

WFB & the Surge   [John J. Miller]

Yesterday on The Corner and on Wednesday in the Washington Post, I noted that WFB was a critic of the war in Iraq but that he had supported the troop surge. The former point is surely correct but the latter point I'm now less certain about. In one column that addresses the surge head on, WFB appears to have his doubts: 

It was four years ago that Mr. Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a “surge,” of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease?

So unless I'm missing another column or a statement elsewhere, the public record at least partially contradicts what I wrote. My claim relied upon conversations with a pair of colleagues, who are blameless in all of this. The real culprit apparently was my own wishful thinking.

Having said that, it's a fact that WFB made two financial contributions last year to John McCain, in April and November. He didn't support any other presidential candidate with his checkbook. Was WFB against the war and the surge as well as for the candidate who has been the most forceful and eloquent in his support of the war and surge? Perhaps, though it seems like an odd set of positions to hold.

Yet that's how I should have left matters: I should have said WFB was a critic of the war who nevertheless supported John McCain for president. Those are the facts. My apologies for suggesting differently.

02/29 05:47 AMShare