BUSH/CHENEY VISIT PENTAGON - I SUSPECT PRESSURE ON GENERALS

The story in today's The Washington Post describes Bush and Cheney travelling yesterday to the Pentagon to meet with the Joint Chiefs as well as Sec. of Defense Gates.

Michael Abramowitz writes:

"Administration officials declined to offer details of Bush's private meeting with Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bush did not appear publicly after the meeting but issued a written statement indicating that the discussions included plans to expand the size of the military and improve coordination between military and civilian officials in places such as Iraq."

Why do I immediately suspect this meeting to be of the type that Cheney used in 2002 to pressure the CIA to come out with the intelligence about WMD in Iraq that he wanted for justification for the invasion and war? Yesterday we have Bush and Cheney travelling to the Pentagon with all the show and force of their offices to meet with the top generals. The line is that Bush wanted information about the condition and morale of the army, but I don't believe it.

I suspect Bush and Cheney went to the Pentagon to pressure the generals to speak with a unified voice about troop levels and the effectiveness of the surge. By "unified voice," I mean the official Bush/Cheney spin on "progress" and "stay the course." There have been reports of some generals calling for a plan for withdrawal and others warning of the danger to the army by Bush's over-extension of the existing force.

I think Bush and Cheney wanted to squelch the dissension and disagreement. Thus they went to the Pentagon in a show of presidential force to cow their subordinates. And this is what they might have said: generals, this is an order, don't talk about over-extension, don't talk about withdrawals, don't talk about the disastrous and pejorative effect on troop morale by extending tours, don't talk about the sense of despair in Iraq.