In an interview of President Bush that aired on the December 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume falsely claimed that Bush has consistently defined “the objective in Iraq” throughout the war as “a free government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.” In fact, this formulation reflects a diminished goal of simply standing up a new sovereign government. By contrast, in 2003, Bush repeatedly stated that the United States sought to create a “peaceful and democratic” Iraq in which the insurgency had been defeated, and, during the war's initial stages, he promised an Iraqi government that would protect minority rights. Hume also failed to challenge Bush's assertion that, “outside of the Baghdad area,” Iraq is “relatively peaceful” and that Americans “don't get to see kind of the normalcy of life outside of the Baghdad area.” In fact, according to reports from multiple sources, including the U.S. military, many areas outside Baghdad are also quite violent.

In addition, Bush stated during the interview that he believes Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki “is the right guy” and that his “intentions are correct.” Hume did not ask Bush to reconcile that statement with a recent memo reportedly written by national security adviser Stephen Hadley. In the memo, Hadley states that although Maliki's “intentions seem good when he talks with Americans,” the “reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

As the weblog Think Progress noted, Hume told Fox News' Neil Cavuto after the interview that Bush's “spirits are good,” and that “you can smell this embattled, troubled quality on a politician at 100 yards. It's not there.” Similarly, he told Fox News' Shepard Smith that “I was not ... in the presence of a man who gave off that sense -- and you can always smell it -- of being an embattled politician.” He also told Smith that Bush said: “I am sustained by the prayers of millions of people. ... I can feel that. People ask me to prove it, I can't prove it, but I can feel it.” Hume continued, “He said this burden is not heavy. ... [W]hen you're in his presence, you sense that. I was struck by that.”

Hume further asked Bush what he told Defense Secretary-designate Robert Gates the “objective in Iraq” was. Bush responded that the objective was “a free government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.” Hume then asserted -- and Bush agreed -- that "[i]t sounds like you told him the same thing you've been telling everybody all along." Hume then asserted, “Your objective has not changed,” which Bush echoed in response: “My objective hasn't changed.”

However, contrary to Hume's suggestion, Bush has shifted the “objective.” In his April 10, 2003, message to the Iraqi people, Bush stated that the United States would leave after setting up a government that guaranteed minority rights:

The goals of our coalition are clear and limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass destruction make it a unique threat to the world. Coalition forces will help maintain law and order, so that Iraqis can live in security. We will respect your great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential to Iraq's future. We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military forces will leave. Iraq will go forward as a unified, independent and sovereign nation that has regained a respected place in the world.

And, on April 3, 2003, Bush said that "[t]he Iraqi people ... deserve a government that respects the rights of every citizen and ethnic group." (Several other examples can be found here.) Such language, however, was absent from the “objective” Bush said he described for Gates.

Bush has also shifted from a “peaceful” Iraq in which the Iraqi insurgents have been defeated to an Iraq in which the government can simply “defend itself.” At a November 20, 2003, joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said, “Our mission in Iraq is noble and it is necessary. No act of thugs or killers will change our resolve or alter their fate. A free Iraq will be free of them. We will finish the job we have begun.” Bush has also repeatedly said that the U.S. goal was a “peaceful” Iraq:

• “Now, with the regime of Saddam Hussein gone forever, a few remaining holdouts are trying to prevent the advance of order and freedom. They are targeting our success in rebuilding Iraq, they're killing new police graduates, they're shooting at people that are guarding the universities and power plants and oil facilities.
  
  ”These killers are the enemies of Iraq's people. They operate mainly in a few areas of the country. And wherever they operate, they are being hunted, and they will be defeated. Our military forces are on the offensive. They're working with the newly free Iraqi people to destroy the remnants of the old regime and their terrorist allies." [Rose Garden comments; 07/23/03]

• “This government is determined to hear the call from the Iraqis, and the call is they want a society in which their children can go to school, in which they can get good health care, in which they're able to live a peaceful life. It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge. And we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective.” [Oval Office comments; 10/27/03]
  

• “We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq and pay a bitter cost of casualties, and liberate 25 million people, only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins. (Applause.) We will help the Iraqi people establish a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle East. And by doing so, we will defend our people from danger.” [Bush speech on Iraq policy; 11/19/03]
  

• “We salute the courage of those Iraqis and the coalition forces engaged in the struggle against reactionary elements in Iraq who want to turn back the clock to the dark days of Saddam's regime.
  
  ”We reaffirm the resolve of our two countries, with many friends and allies, to complete the process of bringing freedom, security, and peace to Iraq." [U.S./U.K. Declaration on Iraq; 11/20/03]

• “And there's no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and democratic and peaceful.” [Announcement of intent to nominate then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte to be ambassador to Iraq; 04/19/04]

By contrast, the “objective” Bush said he described for Gates, and which Hume said was the “same thing you've been telling everybody all along -- ”a free government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror" -- does not necessarily suggest a “peaceful Iraq” in which the insurgency has been defeated. Since the November midterm elections, Bush has used the “sustain, govern, and defend itself” formulation (though without the “free”), as has White House press secretary Tony Snow (here, here, and here).

Indeed, on August 14, 2005, a Washington Post article reported that according to “U.S. officials,” "[t]he Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months." The article continued: “The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges.” As part of these lower goals, the Post article reported, “Washington now does not expect to fully defeat the insurgency before departing, but instead to diminish it, officials and analysts said. There is also growing talk of turning over security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces even if they are not fully up to original U.S. expectations, in part because they have local legitimacy that U.S. troops often do not.”

Hume also failed to challenge Bush's claim that Iraq is not embroiled in a “civil war” because "[m]ost of the country, outside of the Baghdad area, is relatively peaceful." Bush continued: "[B]y the way, I get briefings all the time about where the level of violence is, and the American people, I think, would be interested to know, most of it occurs around the Baghdad area and, therefore, they don't get to see kind of the normalcy of life outside of the Baghdad area." But Hume did not mention that Iraq's Sunnis are reportedly “embroiled in a daily fight for survival,” according to a classified Marine Corps intelligence report on the western Iraqi province of Anbar. The report's existence and contents were disclosed in a November 28 Washington Post article. According to the Post: “The report, 'State of the Insurgency in Al-Anbar,' focuses on conditions in the province that is home to 1.25 million Iraqis, most of whom live in violence-ridden towns such as Fallujah, Haditha, Hit, Qaim and Ramadi.” The article stated that Sunnis in Anbar were “fearful of 'pogroms' by the Shiite majority and increasingly dependent on al-Qaeda in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance across the capital." Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, said at a November 14 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that “Al-Anbar province is not under control.”

An October 2006 Brookings Institution paper titled “Sectarian Violence: Radical Groups Drive Internal Displacement in Iraq,” which was based on data collected from mid-May through mid-June, reported that "[t]he more mixed [ethnically] an area is, the more sectarian violence there is likely to be. Baghdad, Mosul, the towns of Salah ad-Din province (Balad, Dujeil, Samarra), some towns of Diyala province (Baquba, Muqdadiya), the towns of northern Babil (Latifiya, Yusifiya, Mahmudiya) and Basra are thus cities where there is both high violence and high levels of sectarian-induced displacement." (A map of Iraq can be found here.)

As Think Progress noted, The New York Times reported on November 1 that "[a]n intelligence summary at the bottom of the [October 18 U.S. Central Command briefing] slide reads 'urban areas experiencing 'ethnic cleansing' campaigns to consolidate control' and 'violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.' "

In addition, the December 6 Iraq Study Group report detailed the clear lack of “normalcy” in the entire country:

Criminality also makes daily life unbearable for many Iraqis. Robberies, kidnappings, and murder are commonplace in much of the country.

[...]

Four of Iraq's eighteen provinces are highly insecure -- Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, and Salah ad Din. These provinces account for about 40 percent of Iraq's population of 26 million. In Baghdad, the violence is largely between Sunni and Shia. In Anbar, the violence is attributable to the Sunni insurgency and to al Qaeda, and the situation is deteriorating.

In Kirkuk, the struggle is between Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen. In Basra and the south, the violence is largely an intra-Shia power struggle. The most stable parts of the country are the three provinces of the Kurdish north and parts of the Shia south. However, most of Iraq's cities have a sectarian mix and are plagued by persistent violence.

Finally, while discussing the Bush interview on Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, Hume asserted that “there wasn't a recommendation” in then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's November 6 classified memo on Iraq; rather, Hume said, it was “all a list of suggestions and possibilities ... like a Chinese menu and ... the president could choose among them or not.” However, as Media Matters for America has noted, Rumsfeld wrote in the memo that “it is time for a major adjustment” and that "[c]learly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough." Rumsfeld then provided several “above the line” options -- meaning they were worthy of serious consideration -- including “modest troop withdrawals”; he also provided several “below the line” or “less attractive” options. Hume's characterization of Rumsfeld's memo as merely a list of ideas was similar to the explanation given by national security adviser Hadley. As Media Matters noted, Hadley said on the December 3 broadcast of CBS' Face the Nation that the memo was “not a proposal for a new course of action,” but instead “was much more a list of things that needed to be considered.”

From the December 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: Well, you've indicated, as well, and -- after your meeting with Prime Minister Maliki, that this is a guy who, so to speak, wants the ball.

BUSH: Yeah.

HUME: Is he prepared, in your judgment, to take on the influence of Muqtada al-Sadr and to address that problem?

BUSH: I think he is. I know he is prepared to take on the fact that there are murderers inside that society, and -- what I'm looking for is somebody that says a society in which murder and assassination takes place is not acceptable, regardless of who's doing it. And I absolutely believe that the prime minister and Mr. Hakim are committed to ending murder. Now, the hard work is to get it done, particularly when you have outside influences like Al Qaeda stirring up sectarian violence through suiciders or spectacular death. But, the first thing -- look, Brit, I'm asked all the time, is Maliki the right guy? And I said he was. And the reason why is because I believe his intentions are correct. And now the question is: How do we get him the capabilities to get the job done?

HUME: Are you convinced that he's prepared to do the things politically, within his own country -- perhaps to realign his own governing coalition -- that will free him to do these things?

BUSH: I do. And I was again heartened today in my conversations with his eminence, Mr. Hakim, because he talked about a group of moderates, as he called them, coming together to continue to assure the Iraqi people that there is a peaceful future for them.

[...]

BUSH: Well, one of the key points is that I'm getting a lot of advice documents -- documents and I -- of course, these documents were never intended to be read in the public. These are frank assessments by different members of my administration. We're going to be getting another advice document from the Baker-Hamilton Commission, soon. My attitude is I ought to absorb and listen to everything that's being said, because I'm not satisfied with the progress being made in Iraq.

HUME: Right.

BUSH: And by -- the good news is neither is the Iraqi leadership. And so, I'm listening to the Iraqis. I'm going to listen to members of Congress. I want to listen to, obviously, Baker-Hamilton. More importantly, when it comes to military matters, I want to listen to the military to come up with a -- a way of achieving our objective quicker and so, this is an important period.

HUME: Speaking of objectives, what did you tell Bob Gates, when you chose him to succeed Donald Rumsfeld, was the objective in Iraq?

BUSH: A government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself and is -- a free government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself and is an ally in the war on terror.

HUME That sounds very familiar, Mr. President. It sounds like you told him the same thing you've been telling everybody all along.

BUSH: Correct.

HUME: Your objective has not changed.

BUSH: My objective hasn't changed.

HUME: And did -- and how did he respond to that? I mean, he did --

BUSH: He said, “I think we can achieve that objective.”

[...]

HUME: Kofi Annan has now joined others, including Colin Powell, in declaring that that is a civil war.

BUSH : Yeah.

HUME: What is your reaction to that?

BUSH: Listen, I've heard a lot of voices say that, and I've talked to people there in Iraq who don't believe that's the case. You know, for example, some would argue that the fact that 90 percent of the country -- let me just tell you this.

Most of the country outside of the Baghdad area is relatively peaceful, doesn't indicate a civil war as far as they're concerned and, by the way, I get briefings all the time about where the level of violence is, and the American people, I think, would be interested to know, most of it occurs around the Baghdad area and, therefore, they don't get to see kind of the normalcy of life outside of the Baghdad area and so -- there's all kinds of arguments, no question it's dangerous, no question it's violent, and no question we have to do something about the sectarian violence by helping the Iraqi government do something about it.

HUME: The -- as you mentioned, the Baker-Hamilton Commission, the Iraq Study Group, is about to make that report to you here. The expectations for that, as you know, sir, are very high. Members of Congress are practically already declaring their allegiance to whatever those findings are going to be. How much weight does that -- does that report get special weight with you because of that and because of all that goes with it as against the other forms of advice you're receiving in such volume?

BUSH: You know, I need to see the report. I don't want to prejudge what's in the report. First of all, I respect James Baker and I respect Lee Hamilton. I have met with the commission. It's a very fine group of people that are going to take a good solid objective look about Iraq. I'm looking forward to it. It's very hard for me to, you know, prejudice one report over another. They're all important. I am going to listen to them, listen to the -- what they have to say.

I just want the American people to understand that the mission is to have this young democracy succeed and it is to interest we do so. Failure would be a disaster for the future of this country.

From the December 4 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson:

GIBSON: Did he give you his take on the leaked Rummy memo?

HUME: He didn't, and I invited -- I sort of invited him to go there, and he didn't really go there. He kind of chuckled about it. But the White House -- I mean, the president -- the sense you get from this is that everybody has been asked to produce ideas. Rumsfeld did. And there wasn't a recommendation among them, you know. It was all a list of suggestions and possibilities. It was like a Chinese menu and, you know, the president could choose among them or not.

From the December 4 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: Brit, what was his mood like?

HUME: Well, it's a striking thing, Neil, because the perception from the outside -- and we all see this; we see this president politically embattled; his party just took a drubbing in the midterm elections; you got the situation in Iraq, it seems increasingly intractable -- and the perception is that his old man's aides now, Baker and Gates, are riding to the rescue to try to get the U.S. out of Iraq. And you get an entirely different perspective when you talk to the president himself.

His spirits are good, his atmosphere is -- you know, his attitude is confident. He's -- he seems comfortable. He seems to enjoy the work. He said the burden of this office is not heavy, it's light. The other thing he said, Neil -- and this is very important when you're judging this president -- is he says there are millions of people out there praying for him and he can feel it. When people ask him to prove that, he says, “I can't prove it, but I can feel it.”

And -- so this is a guy who also believes, and he said this to me in the interview, that the judgment of history on what he has done will be very different from the contemporary judgments and he's focused on that and he's, you know, kept an eye on what's been the case with other presidents, and so forth. So, it is -- this interview, although there was some news in it, was striking at least as much for what it tells you about the president and his state of mind. He's fine; he's in good spirits. Now, look, Neil, you and I have been around a long time and you can smell this embattled, troubled quality on a politician at 100 yards. It's not there.

From the December 4 edition of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith:

HUME: And the other thing that struck me about this interview, Shep, was I was not even presence -- in the presence of a man who gave off that sense -- and you can always smell it -- of being an embattled politician. In fact, I asked him about that very thing, I said, “You know, I've spent some time recently with friends of yours; they're worried about you. They think your presidency has run aground on the shoals of Iraq.” And then he kind of laughed, and he said, you know, he said, “I get that when I see them, too.” He said, “I'm fine.” He said people think the burden of this office is so terrible. He said, “I'm telling you, I am sustained by the prayers of millions of people.” He said, “I can feel that. People ask me to prove it, I can't prove it, but I can feel it.” He said this burden is not heavy. And, you know --

SMITH: Wow.

HUME: -- when you're in his presence, you sense that. I was struck by that.