"We're losing"

Finally I've found a quote from Colin Powell that I can fully agree with...

Here is a description of an exchange between Bush and Powell courtesy of the Financial Times:

According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. "We're losing," Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.

Of course our head-in-the-sand war-hero president coudn't take the truth about his little adventure in Iraq. There is word going around that the president has given instructions on what kind of news he wants to hear from Iraq... I can't find the original source for this, but this quote is reportedly from the very-plugged-into-Washington Nelson Report:

Our sources say that attempts to brief Bush on various grim realities have been personally rebuffed by the President, who actually says that he does not want to hear "bad news." Rather, Bush makes clear that all he wants are progress reports, where they exist, and those facts which seem to support his declared mission in Iraq . . . building democracy. "That's all he wants to hear about," we have been told. So "in" are the latest totals on school openings, and "out" are reports from senior US military commanders (and those intelligence experts still on the job) that they see an insurgency becoming increasingly effective, and their projection that "it will just get worse."

These reports in some way provide the right background for Mr. Bush's recent interviews and sound bites where he usually gets this dreamy look in his eyes when he talks about the wonderful and hopeful things that the blooming democracy is going to bring to Iraq...