Once, Bush was all for defining missions

By MARSHA MERCER
Media General News Service
WASHINGTON -- Name the presidential hopeful who said: "If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
Hillary Clinton, you say? Barack Obama? John Edwards?
No, no and no. That was Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1999.
Rep. Walter Jones, Republican of North Carolina, cited the quote last week in explaining why he was voting against President Bush's troop surge in Iraq.
Another debate
Bush's unequivocal declaration came via his spokeswoman Karen Hughes in March 1999 as the House debated another non-binding resolution -- urging President Clinton not to send troops to Kosovo.
Candidate Bush made the conditions for military action a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Now they're another reminder, as if we needed one, that what's said on the campaign trail may bear little resemblance to performance in office.
I wondered what else the Texas governor or his spokeswoman had said at the time. I found the March 27, 1999, Washington Post article from which Jones had read.
Reporter William Branigin evidently tried to draw Hughes out, but she wouldn't say whether Bush believed Clinton had a clear mission, achievable goal and exit strategy in Kosovo.
"That's a decision that needs to be made by the commander in chief," she said.
Elsewhere, Bush dodged questions about Kosovo, saying he was not privy to intelligence information and couldn't make an informed judgment. The Austin American-Statesman quoted him as saying, "The ultimate question is, will this military action lead to the goal of ending the conflict and bringing peace and stability to the region?"
It was a good question then, and it's a good question now.
Several Republican presidential contenders that year criticized Clinton for the lack of an exit strategy in Kosovo.
"It's terribly frustrating that there's no endgame here," Sen. John McCain of Arizona told the Post. "If the bombing doesn't work, what then? The administration will not answer that question. There's no Plan B."
Today, McCain supports Bush on the troop surge and says more troops are needed.
Most Americans, though, have lost faith in the president's policies on Iraq. Democrats feel the need to deliver on their campaign promises to get troops out of Iraq, and even the president sometimes sounds war-weary. Asked at his news conference last week whether a civil war exists in Iraq, Bush said, "It's hard for me, living in this beautiful White House, to give you an assessment, first-hand assessment.
"I haven't been there. You have, I haven't," he told reporters. Bush has been to Iraq twice.
Then he said, "people whose judgment I trust . . . would not qualify it as that. There are others who think it is."
Just can't decide
The Decider is conflicted. He has lost some in his own party. Jones, whose district includes Camp Lejeune, co-sponsored the Iraq resolution, which was backed by a small but vocal group of Republican dissidents. Bush says it's possible for someone to be against his surge policy and still support the troops.
But he already is gearing up for the next phase of the battle with Congress. "The proof will be whether or not you provide them the money necessary to do the mission," he said.
Democratic leaders maintain that they won't cut off funding for the troops' equipment and training. But they will try to cut off the supply of troops.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, has a plan to require the military to follow guidelines on how long troops must be allowed to stay home between deployments. That, he says, would limit the manpower available for the surge.
Democrats portray the House vote on the nonbinding resolution as merely the first step in pressuring Bush to change course.
In an interview with PBS' Jim Lehrer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the vote sets the stage for a whole new debate on Iraq. She and other critics say Bush must seek a diplomatic and political resolution to the problems in Iraq rather than relying on military action.
This administration, she said, "did not know what it was getting into."
President Bush should have listened to Governor Bush.
Marsha Mercer is Washington bureau chief of Media General News Service. Distributed by Scripps Howard.