Bush "Upbeat" on Iraq?

Just to add to the head-shaking about how far this can go before something, anything, gives...

Bush "Upbeat" on Iraq?: " Last week, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and senior White House officials, in hopes of shoring up the GOP's sagging poll numbers before the November 7 midterm election, went on a media blitz, granting on-the-record interviews to dozens of conservative print and broadcast reporters. One of those interviews resulted in a backlash against the White House when Cheney told a reporter that, for him, water-boarding, a controversial technique used against terror suspects that simulates drowning, was a 'no brainer.'

But poring through another transcript revealed statements made by President Bush during a lengthy interview at the White House with conservative columnists that are equally disturbing but that have not been reported with the same gusto and zeal as the reports that Cheney backed water torture.

While discussing the situation in Iraq and explaining the reasons the United States launched a pre-emptive strike against the country, Bush told the journalists that 'I believe when you get attacked and somebody declares war on you, you fight back. And that's what we're doing,' according to a transcript of the interview."