(Reuters) Bush plan for more troops originated with Maliki

[Eugene]

Bush plan for more troops originated with Maliki
By Susan Cornwell
Reuters

Jan 8, 2007 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's new plan for Iraq
had its genesis in proposal from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who pledged more
Iraqi efforts to bolster security if the United States would send more troops, a
Republican senator said on Monday.

Sen. Gordon Smith, who in December criticized the war in a Senate floor speech,
said Bush indicated in a Monday meeting with a group of Republican senators and top
administration officials that he was preparing to send roughly 20,000 more U.S.
troops to Iraq.

-snip-

The Iraqi commitments from Maliki included providing more military divisions, promising
to use certain tactics without regard to religious sects, and a promise not to shield
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Smith said.

-snip-

"He (Bush) went at great length to say how impressed he was that Prime Minister
Maliki would come to them with a plan as to what was needed to restore the political
processes of Iraq," Smith said. Bush thought that "because this was their (the Iraqis')
proposal, they would come through," Smith said.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2780043

If George Bush believes Maliki's promises, he's even dumber than I thought.