Uncurious George

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Mentions of George Bush as uncurious, without explanation

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Kerry Fires Back at White House on Iraq War
Oct 31 2006 10:10PM

GOP spokespersons called the remark an insult to our troops. Senator Kerry calls it a botched joke about the President's incuriousness.

Rolling Stone : COVER STORY: America's Anchors Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
October 31, 2006
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert faked it until they made it. Now they may truly be the most trusted names in news
By MAUREEN DOWD

[DOWD:] But just before he ran for president, he was still trying to figure out why North Korea and other hot spots were important.

STEWART: That's being uncurious about the world, and self-involved. But that has nothing to do with intelligence.

question about bush admin "incompetence" - JREF Forum
James Randi Educational Foundation
by davefoc 30th October 2006, 10:44 AM

Bush seems to be a non-curious individual without strong commitments to any ideology.

Eunomia - The Soul-Seer
Sunday, October 29th, 2006 in politics, Christianity by Daniel Larison

Yet I am reluctant to go along with Ross [Douthat] on this one (though it is not because I am particularly fond of the rather, well, dippy, saccharine spirituality of many evangelicals–I have suffered through one Intervarsity meeting too many in my time), because it echoes too much a Sullivanesque theme that Bush’s personal religiosity–that of a “fundamentalist” freed from he blessed state of doubt that St. Andrew recommends to us–reinforces his unwillingness to consider dissenting views or his habit of being intellectually incurious.

The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » Slowly back away from the comic book
October 28, 2006
Posted 9:44 am
Guest Post by Morbo

I can only wonder how many dead Americans and Iraqis would be alive now if we had that egghead in the White House — a man who reads real literature and learns from it — instead of an uncurious, literature-spurning boob whose last major literary accomplishment was getting through “My Pet Goat.”

AFF's Brainwash :: Gene Healy :: "Much More Elite"
Oct 28, 2006

And yet conservatives seem to buy Bush's reverse snobbery act, and accept the idea that he's 'jes folks. It's an amazingly democratic perspective in a way. If you're inarticulate enough, and completely incurious about the world, it doesn't matter where you come from. You too can be a working class dog.

Amazon.com: State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III: Books: Bob Woodward
Inaction, Untruths and Incompetence, October 28, 2006
Reviewer: S. Kramer (New York, NY)

This book makes the various personalities in the incompetent, unrealistic and dysfunctional Bush administration come to life in shocking ways.

First, there's Bush, the intellectually incurious cheerleader who demands nothing from his administration and advisors but good talking points to campaign on and bash Democrats with. He sees Iraq solely through the re-election prism at a crucial time when real leadership was badly needed. He never demands the dose of reality or the change of course required.

Nero's Fiddle
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Posted by neros_fiddle at 2:32 PM

Incurious George: [Follows here a quote of George W. Bush showing his ignorance about both Islam and the worsening situation in Iraq.]

Is that a shrub in your pocket...
PJS Designs
Saturday, October 28, 2006
posted by pjs 12:14 PM

. . . we find ourselves saddled with an ignorant, incurious, lunatic with an Oedipus complex and his finger on the button, who thinks God is telling him what to do.

The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » Slowly back away from the comic book
October 28, 2006
Posted 9:44 am
Guest Post by Morbo

I'm convinced that no one in the Bush gang has ever read a real book. It would show if they had. Consider the ongoing debate over the role of torture in the "war on terror." One of the oldest themes in literature is the idea that as we fight the thing we fear the most, we must take caution lest we become that thing. This apparently never occurred to anyone at the White House because they couldn't get through "Animal Farm." . . .

I can only wonder how many dead Americans and Iraqis would be alive now if we had that egghead in the White House — a man who reads real literature and learns from it — instead of an uncurious, literature-spurning boob whose last major literary accomplishment was getting through "My Pet Goat."

Marry in Massachusetts: SSM Final Word in Olympia
Friday, October 27, 2006
posted by Mass Marrier @ 6:19 AM

Incurious George, of course, had no specifics on defense.

Readings in the Age of Empire - by Doug Bandow
AntiWar.com
October 27, 2006
Book Review
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster, 2006
558 pp.

"Bring 'em on," challenged the remarkably incurious and inflexibly stubborn president. He seemed to believe the clichés that he continued to spout about staying the course, turning the corner, and expecting victory, "cheerleading" even at internal White House meetings, according to Paul Bremer.

Marry in Massachusetts: SSM Final Word in Olympia
Friday, October 27, 2006
posted by Mass Marrier @ 6:19 AM

Incurious George, of course, had no specifics on defense.

Adam Ash: Iraq: Bush changes course (sort of), US diplomat says we've been stupid, two reports from Iraq front, & more plans
Thursday, October 26, 2006

8. Alternative Realities -- by George Packer/The New Yorker

. . . Obstacles to critical thinking are not exclusive to this Administration, with its incurious President and its ruthless political "commissars," as they are known among their colleagues.

Observations from Latitude 45: The Clubhouse
Thursday, October 26, 2006
posted by Locster @ 4:58 AM

Propped up on a chair in the corner is a life size puppet doll of George Bush that has one of those Howdy Doody mouths. This way the fellas can have practice sessions with the prez and rehearse how they are going to guide him to do whatever they want. They tire of this quickly since non-curious George is a simple mind and they figure things out in about 37 seconds. . . .

The most read book is of course Non-Curious George.

DICTA: Fakers
posted by dicta at Thursday, October 26, 2006

And, last but certainly not least, there is Republican presidential character faker George W. “everything is black and white and I know which is which without asking a single question because I am an uncurious man-child with no patience for the hard work of a true president” Bush.

TBogg - "...a somewhat popular blogger"
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tales of the Erudite Bibliophile
posted by tbogg at 10:57 PM

When he's not playing 40 games of chess at once, George Bush likes to unwind with a big thick wonky book. In fact this past summer the White House was kind enough to provide an extraordinarily diverse list of books that Uncurious George was supposedly reading to show that he's a serious student of the human condition ( The Stranger by Albert Camus) , a man of the people ( Cinnamon Skin: Travis McGee Mysteries by John D. MacDonald), a lover of the Great Books ( Macbeth by William Shakespeare) and a guy you can have a beer with at the corner bar (The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville).

NPR : A Shelf Full of Books Chronicle Iraq Policy, Strategy
Morning Edition, October 24, 2006

From the point of view of Washington, State of Denial confirms what previous books have already suggested. In fact, one thing you can say about all of these books is that there is a coherent narrative in place. And that narrative is that the war plan and the postwar policy and the failures to understand what we were getting into originated because we had an incurious president who did not take an interest in the details.

DePauw University News
Roger Wilkins and David Keene Predict Democrat Gains in Midterm Elections
October 23, 2006, Greencastle, Ind.

Wilkins and Keene -- who seemed to agree on many points during the lively session -- differed here. Wilkins responded, [Download Audio: "A Response" - 151kb] "President Bush is demonstrably uncurious. Senator Obama is very, very smart."

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
ALTERNATIVE REALITIES
Issue of 2006-10-30
Posted 2006-10-23
by George Packer

Obstacles to critical thinking are not exclusive to this Administration, with its incurious President and its ruthless political “commissars,” as they are known among their colleagues.

The Blog | Marty Kaplan: The (Jonah) Goldberg Variations | The Huffington Post
10.19.2006

So what makes Jonah run? Why was the war a mistake? "The White House did not anticipate a low-intensity civil war in Iraq, never planned for it and would not have deemed it in the U.S. interest to pay this high a price in prestige, treasure and, of course, lives."

I see. In other words, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rice and Rumsfeld were as arrogant, vain, blinkered, reckless, cocksure, zealous, impermeable to advice and intolerant of dissent as a majority of the nation has long come to believe.

What kind of flatworm brain did any of these war planners have to have, not to have anticipated a low-intensity civil war? What kind of ideological zealotry was necessary not to have anticipated -- even as part of a war game, even as an unthinkable option, even to develop a contingency plan -- paying this kind of price in prestige, treasure and lives? What kind of incuriosity, what slavish obedience to authority, what form of political fundamentalism has to have been on display during four years of wilful blindness to the facts on the ground?

The Blog | Bob Burnett: The Axis of Ego | The Huffington Post
10.17.2006

Many characterize George W. Bush as intellectually impaired because he's incurious; has no stomach for disciplined analysis. . . .

Others attribute the failure of the Administration to the President's dogmatism. Say he's not stupid, but rather willfully ignorant. Note that he is remarkably inflexible; arrogantly asserts his opinions to be the truth.

The Second Children's Crusade - by Jon Basil Utley
October 16, 2006

Who better to lead America on a Second Children's Crusade than our president, known to his friends as King George the Incurious, a tabula rasa with the naiveté and faith of a born-again convert, just 15 years old (dating from his rebirth) when he took office?

Of course, every children's tale has its evil elves. These were the neocons, scribbling away in their garrets dark machinations to use Incurious George to rule the world. . . .

And out in the deserts and backwoods of America were the mighty Armageddonites, 20 million of them, true fomenters of death and destruction. . . . Their hope was to use Incurious George as an instrument of unending war, chaos, and misery in the Middle East, to hurry up God to fulfill their fantasies of being raptured up to heaven, while all the rest of humanity is destroyed.

So Incurious George, also called Simple George by the public, or less charitably, Bush the Fool, sent forth the children to battle evil. (Of course, they were not his children nor those of his advisers, nor even those of his supine parliament.) . . .

Incurious George, however, was oblivious to it all, even as he traveled his kingdom telling more fairy tales to the children and the voters.

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Before war, Bush 'should have wondered why'
19 October 2006
by Michael Jansen
Originally published in the Jordan Times, Amman, Jordan, same date and title.

Therefore, it is not suprising that Bush junior, an incurious man who does not read newspapers, continues to wage war in Iraq without any idea of what is happening on the ground or where the country is going. . . .

These hard facts [death counts] — which Bush and his cronies must take into consideration but prefer to ignore — will make it all the more difficult for his administration to ignore the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, even though Bush junior is now all the more loathe to take advice from a man like Baker, because "Daddy" was clearly right not to send his army to Baghdad in 1991. Bush junior should have wondered why.

Liberty) Team player or negative thinker - Guest Columns - VillageSoup
Village Soup, Belfast, ME
Oct 16

Woodward goes a major step forward by pointing out the president does not work to gain full disclosure from his advisers or from these messengers. Woodward comments on the president's lack of curiosity and on how those who reported eyewash to him, who had earlier spoken frankly to the president’s senior advisers explaining the problems they saw. But the messages, even those of alarm, got smoothed over to fit the perceptions the president espoused, when delivered in the company of the president.

Capitol Hill Blue: Time to lower the boom on the party of gloom & doom
Posted by: Timothy Richley | October 16, 2006 11:01 AM

I haven't yet been able to decide if GWB is just an idiot bumbler, an incurious george, or if he is in fact one more AD [authoritarian dominant].

The Observer | Comment | America is finally revolting against the Republicans
The Observer (London)
Andrew Rawnsley in Washington
Sunday October 15, 2006

George Bush is set to spend his last two years in the White House besieged by searing probes into his presidency. That would be a fitting fate for a President famous for his unwillingness or inability to focus on detail and his lack of curiosity about the consequences of his own decisions.

Lies, damn lies - Sunday Times - Times Online
The Sunday Times (London) October 15, 2006 Lies, damn lies
REVIEWED BY SIMON JENKINS
STATE OF DENIAL: Bush at War, Part III
by Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster £18.99 pp576

Bush, whose “vision thing” made him almost the hero of Woodward’s earlier books, appears fumbling and intellectually incurious, unable to see through the sycophantic rubbish being served up to him.

Daily Kos :: Comments GOP October Hail Mary (Change Direction in Iraq?)
Call me crazy, but with the news breaking (0 / 0)
by gazingoffsouthward on Sat Oct 14, 2006 at 07:55:04 PM PDT

Bush's mannerisms, Bushisms, his anger, his vindictiveness, incuriousness, and those symptoms of early-on Alzheimer's or some senility are too frightening for Republicans to stick with him.

From Foreign Press : Recommendation to dump war on terror
The New Nation Bangladesh's Independent News Source By Julian Borger
Sat, 14 Oct 2006, 10:41:00

In the new book the decisive president of the previous two has vanished--if he ever existed--to be replaced by an incurious monarch, sure of his own infallibility, surrounded by relentlessly upbeat countries and deaf to bad news. . . .

. . . dire maternal reports, were shrugged off by an executive led by a man who trusted his gut feelings more than the reports of his increasingly desperate envoys. An unshakeable certainty has seen Bush through two presidential elections, but it now puts the chance of a mid-course correction in foreign policy at somewhere between improbable and impossible.

Lesson in forgiveness in the face of snarling hate - Opinion - smh.com.au
The Sydney Morning Herald
Mike Carlton
October 14, 2006

By Woodward's account, the President is a vapid dunderhead in the Oval Office and the White House situation room. "Intellectually incurious", he speaks in cliches. . . . Bush is a risible, almost pathetic figure, incapable of comprehending the disaster he has wrought.

Drudge Retort: Bush Can't Find His Happy Place
Posted by emperorbush at 2006-10-09 07:39 PM

Your lack of curiosity is the key to our success

Leading article: Time for change in Iraq - Sunday Times - Times Online
The (London) Sunday Times - Comment
October 08, 2006

As Bob Woodward recounts in his book State of Denial, which we serialise today, Mr Rumsfeld was warned early on about the mistakes being made. Jay Garner, the retired general put in charge of ensuring Iraq’s post-war transformation to stability, warned him that “de-Ba’athification” — banning members of Saddam Hussein’s party from official positions — was driving resistance underground. These and other criticisms went no further. If the picture that emerges of the defence secretary is of a misguided control freak, that which appears of the president is of an incurious man living in a bubble.

'No Further Fallout' - washingtonpost.com
Editorial
White House stonewalling and the Jack Abramoff scandal
Sunday, October 8, 2006; Page B06

You might think a White House worried about honor and integrity would want to look more closely at Mr. Abramoff's dealings. You might think it would be concerned about whether Ms. Ralston violated the rules that prohibit administration officials from taking gifts valued at more than $20, though there is an exception for gifts based on preexisting friendships. You might think it would want to make clear that -- whether technically permitted by the rules or not -- this is unacceptable behavior from government officials.

Not this White House, which has been resolutely incurious about Mr. Abramoff's activities and equally unwilling to provide information about it -- making it impossible to know how many of the reported contacts are classic Abramoff puffery and how many real.

When it works, it hurts to laugh - Los Angeles Times
By Robert Abele, Special to The Times
October 8, 2006

And while nobody seemed to care about "American Dreamz," a satire this spring that offered up a nonreading prez (Dennis Quaid) who suddenly discovers newspapers, a few months later we were all being told that the supposedly incurious Bush devours books.

How Woodwood's big read goes right to a city's vanity - World - Times Online
October 07, 2006
By Gerard Baker

State of Denial has been seized upon by critics of the Bush Administration as a devastating indictment of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary. Mr Bush comes across as — surprise! — incurious, disengaged, hopelessly over-optimistic and not very bright.

Bush takes a beating | Features | The Australian
The White House has taken a telling blow from Mr Insider, Bob Woodward, writes associate editor Cameron Stewart
October 07, 2006

Woodward's book, State of Denial, delivers an astonishing and alarming inside portrait of dysfunction in the Bush administration's handling of the war on terror.

It portrays the President as an incurious commander-in-chief living in denial, insisting publicly that the US is winning the war in Iraq when his own intelligence assessments have said otherwise.

Party out of control | Features | The Australian
A sex scandal threatens to loosen the Republican's [sic] grip on the US Congress, reports Washington correspondent Geoff Elliott
October 07, 2006

And this week a new book from veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, State of Denial, details an administration divided to the point of dysfunction and headed by an incurious president, claiming he is in denial about the state of the US war effort in Iraq.

My Secret IMs With 'The Cowboy' / In the wake of the Foley sex scandal, Mark Morford reveals his chat with a "special" GOP friend
SFGate
notes & errata
Wednesday, October 6, 2006
This is one of Morford's imagined instant messages coming from President Bush.

Cwboy43 (8:45:39 PM): Thanks pardner! (that's cowboy talk fyi). But then look what happens. damn Woodward book rips me for being passive and sophomoric and "intellecutally incurious"? Which is a bunch of cow patties because I'm super curious about intellectuals. They are so weird!

Turmoil at the top | Features | The Australian
Turmoil at the top
Bob Woodward's latest book could cripple the Bush presidency, writes Geoff Elliott
October 04, 2006

Unlike more sympathetic portrayals in his first two books on the administration, Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004), his latest - at more than 550 pages - portrays an administration divided to the point of dysfunction, headed by an incurious President, denying to himself and the American public just how seriously off the rails the administration's war in Iraq has gone.

FOXNews.com - Bob Woodward Defends Claims Made in New Book - Bill O’Reilly | The O’Reilly Factor
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 3, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

O'REILLY: They say, "In Bob Woodward's highly anticipated new book 'State of Denial,' President Bush emerges as a passive, impatient, sophomoric and intellectually incurious leader, presiding over a grossly dysfunctional war cabinet, and given to an almost religious certainty that makes him disinclined to rethink or reevaluate decisions he has made about the war."

Do you think that's a fair assessment of what you wrote?

WOODWARD: Well, that's one. And there's a lot of unhappy news in this book, if you've looked at it.

O'REILLY: Do you think that's -- no, wait, wait, wait.

WOODWARD: Sure.

O'REILLY: Do you think that is a fair assessment: impatient, sophomoric, intellectually incurious, isn't going to change his mind no matter what? Is that fair?

Bush springs to Rumsfeld's defence | News | The Australian
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
October 03, 2006

Woodward has had high-level access and his characterisation of Mr Bush as an incurious president not interested in details is another blow to a White House and the Republican Party just five weeks before mid-term Congressional elections.

The Blog | Jane Smiley: Bizarro President | The Huffington Post
10.03.2006

From Newsweek, concerning Bob Woodward's "State of Denial", we have, "The president is folksy and jocular, but incurious to the point of cluelessness."

Bush battens down for hurricane Woodward - World - theage.com.au
The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
Michael Gawenda, Washington
October 2, 2006
Also appeared in AsiaMedia, same date and headline.

Woodward also takes aim at an "intellectually incurious" President George Bush and senior officials who have continually misled people about the violence and the strength of the insurgency in Iraq. . . .

Some books in recent months, including Fiasco, by the Washington Post's Pentagon reporter, have revealed how the Bush White House ignored advice from senior military officers and State Department officials that more troops were needed to defeat the Iraqi insurgency.

Those warnings came within weeks of Mr Bush declaring victory. State of Denial confirms this and goes further, revealing how Mr Bush has never tried to question the officials who issued these warnings. Instead, he relies on advice from senior commanders who, according to Woodward, are loath to tell him the hard truths.

Mr Bush emerges as a man who not only lacks intellectual curiosity but is untroubled by self-doubt, a man who constantly tells his aides that as commander-in-chief his job is to exude confidence in his decisions. He is, according to Woodward, a man of deep faith, who prays regularly for guidance and believes his prayers are answered. . . .

At one stage, according to Woodward, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was asked whether Mr Bush had ever asked him for his views on Iraq.

"No, no, he hasn't," Senator McCain said. "As a matter of fact, he's not intellectually curious.

Arianna Huffington: Woodward as Journalistic Hero: the Real State of Denial - Yahoo! News
Mon Oct 2, 7:29 PM ET
Also appeared on The Huffington Post Oct. 2, 2006.

In her New York Times review of "State of Denial," Michiko Kakutani says that Woodward paints a portrait of President Bush as "a passive, impatient, sophomoric and intellectually incurious leader, presiding over a grossly dysfunctional war cabinet and given to an almost religious certainty that makes him disinclined to rethink or re-evaluate decisions he has made about the war." . . .

Bush had that same religious certainty, lack of curiosity, impatience and disinclination to rethink things back in 2004, when Woodward published "Plan of Attack," or in 2002, when Woodward published "Bush at War."

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Rumsfeld's Sabotage
02 Oct 2006 08:23 am

The fiasco in Iraq was preventable. But Rumsfeld insisted it occur. Good for Newsweek for telling it like it is:
The administration was not just unlucky. It was almost willfully blind to the risks entailed in invading and occupying a large, traumatized and deeply riven Arab country.

Woodward Book: Rumsfeld...Bullying, Petty. Bush...Incurious To The Point Of Cluelessness at Theoblogical
Published by Dale October 1st, 2006 in Uncategorized

From a Newsweek review on msnbc.com
The Rumsfeld portrayed by Woodward is bullying and petty. Bush himself doesn’t come off much better. The president is folksy and jocular, but incurious to the point of cluelessness. . . .

Source: The Woodward War - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

Bob WoodwardÙs Evolving Portrait of President Bush » Outside The Beltway | OTB
By James Joyner
Sunday, October 1, 2006

Kevin Drum cites a NYT review of Bob Woodward’s latest which begins thusly:
In Bob Woodward’s highly anticipated new book, “State of Denial,” President Bush emerges as a passive, impatient, sophomoric and intellectually incurious leader, presiding over a grossly dysfunctional war cabinet and given to an almost religious certainty that makes him disinclined to rethink or re-evaluate decisions he has made about the war. . . .
Whatever George W. Bush’s intellectual and character shortcomings, they had to be evident in 2001. After all, he was new to the job and, really, new to politics. And he was dealing with arguably the biggest domestic crisis in forty years. Even if his stubborness and lack of curiosity prevented him from growing in office, it’s rather hard to believe that he got less competent with time.

Office of the Independent Blogger » Blog Archive » Working Hard in the GOP
posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 2:59 pm

It’s so disgusting, in my opinion, that Donald Rumsfeld is a bully to others in the Administration, George Bush continues to be incurious to the point of oblivion (first revealed by Paul O’Neill: repeatedly reinforced by your own eyes and everyone else to ever meet him), and that Condi Rice is so pathetic as to whine to the President that Rumsfeld wouldn’t return her phone calls.

Woodward Book: Rumsfeld…Bullying, Petty. Bush…Incurious To The Point Of Cluelessness at Theoblogical
Published by Dale October 1st, 2006

From a Newsweek review on msnbc.com
The Rumsfeld portrayed by Woodward is bullying and petty. Bush himself doesn’t come off much better. The president is folksy and jocular, but incurious to the point of cluelessness.

Woodward Book: Rumsfeld...Bullying, Petty. Bush...Incurious To The Point Of Cluelessness. Rice...Almost A Pathetic Figure... | The Huffington Post
October 1, 2006
Exerpt from Newsweekcover story by Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe

Bush himself doesn't come off much better. The president is folksy and jocular, but incurious to the point of cluelessness.

White House plot to fire Rumsfeld - Sunday Times - Times Online
The Sunday Times (London) October 01, 2006
Sarah Baxter, Washington

At the centre of the melee, Bush is shown to be an incurious president. He never pressed visitors to express their opinions, according to Lieutenant-General Jay Garner, the first administrator in Iraq. . .

But if Woodward is to be believed, no amount of criticism or bad news will persuade the president to switch tactics.

“I will not withdraw even if Laura and [his pet dog] Barney are the only ones supporting me,” Bush reportedly said.

'Newsweek' Cover Story Examines Woodward Book
Editor & Publisher
By E&P Staff
Published: October 01, 2006 12:40 PM ET

In reviewing the book, Newsweek's Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe write: "The Rumsfeld portrayed by Woodward is bullying and petty. Bush himself doesn't come off much better. The president is folksy and jocular, but incurious to the point of cluelessness.

Bob Woodward: How Bush Deceived Public on Iraq - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com
Issue date: October 9, 2006
Posted October 1, 2006

Garner went to the White House, mid-morning on Friday, February 28, 2003, to meet President Bush for the first time. In the Situation Room, Garner passed around copies of his handout, an 11-point presentation, and dove right in. He said four of the nine tasks his small team was supposed to be in charge of in Iraq under Bush’s NSPD-24 were plainly beyond their capabilities, including dismantling weapons of mass destruction, defeating terrorists, reshaping the Iraqi military and reshaping the other internal Iraqi security institutions.

The president nodded. No one else intervened, though Garner had just told them he couldn’t be responsible for crucial postwar tasks—the ones that had the most to do with the stated reasons for going to war in the first place—because his team couldn’t do them.

The import of what he had said seemed to sail over everyone’s heads. . . .

How many from the army? someone asked.

“I’m going to give you a big range,” Garner answered. “It’ll be between 200,000 and 300,000.“

Garner looked around the room. All the heads were bobbing north to south. Nobody challenged. Nobody had any questions about this plan. . . .

. . . in these moments where Bush had someone from the field there in the chair beside him, he did not press, did not try to open the door himself and ask what the visitor had seen and thought.

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Uncurious George

Citations: Dishonorable mentions Mentions of George Bush as uncurious, without explanation

Citations: Dishonorable mentions
Mentions of George Bush as uncurious, without explanation