Snow: Americans ‘Out of Touch With Reality’ In Iraq

Think Progress

Just weeks ago, President Bush insisted that the United States was “absolutely” winning in Iraq. Recently, as the casulties have mounted, he’s toned back his sunny rhetoric slightly, saying the United States was not “winning or losing.” Yet media reports indicate Bush believes the United States can win by sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq, a gambit that has been tried before and failed.

This prompted a reporter to ask White House Press Secretary Tony Snow if Bush was “fundamentally out of touch with what the reality is on the ground in Iraq?” Snow responded that “we may be out of touch with reality because we sit around and we look at fractional pictures on the screen.” Bush, on the other hand, “knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there.”

Transcript:

Q The only question, though, to press a little bit, is the view that the President has been determined, he’s been resolved, and nobody questions that, but does he get it? I mean, is he fundamentally out of touch with what the reality is on the ground in Iraq?

MR. SNOW: No, I think what happens is, we may be out of touch with reality because we sit around and we look at fractional pictures on the screen. This is a President who gets exhaustive briefings on a daily basis about the situation. He knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there.