Adapting to win

Adapting to win is the most recent Bush administration talking point on the war in Iraq, apparently replacing stay the course.

In an August 9, 2006, conference call with bloggers, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, in response to the question by "Mirengoff" of Powerline Blog: "Public opinion on war changing, if not defeatist, at least unhappy with progress - what can Repubs do?", responded that "war is difficult, answer is not to give terrorists a victory. Highlight consequences of failure. Issue is not a choice between cut-and-run and stay-the-course, but should be adapt-and-win. ..." (emphasis added)

Speaking on the Sunday, August 13, 2006, edition of Meet the Press, Mehlman said:

"Look, the fact is our mission in the war in Iraq is critical. We agree on that, we agree that it's wrong to cut and run. But look we're not coming in and saying stay the course. The choice in this election is not between stay the course and cut and run. It's between win by adapting and cut and run. Let me tell you what we're doing. The fact is before the successful Iraqi elections, the number of troops went up from 137,000 to 160,000. That's adapting to win. Recently we increased troops in Baghdad, adapting to win. We changed how the training of Iraqi forces occurred to involve more Iraqis. That's adapting to win. We've involved the international community more, the EU, the UN." (emphasis added)

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Bush administration propaganda and disinformation
• Exit Strategy from Iraq
• Iraq Study Group
• rebranding
• revolution in military affairs
• war propaganda

External links

• Lt. Col. Chuck Anderson, "Functional Alignment of Function Branches: A Key for Change," Military Review, September/October 2001.
• James B. Hickey, "The Land Warfare Papers No. 45. Surprise, Shock and Daring: The Future of Mobile, All-Arms Warfare," The Institue of Land Warfare, Association of the United States Army, April 2004. See introduction re "adapting to win".
• Stu McLennan, "US Army Training: Adapting to Win," BeLogical.com, June 21, 2006.
• "Conference Call with RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman," Wizbang! Blog, August 9, 2006.
• "Transcript for Aug. 13," Meet the Press/NBC, August 13, 2006: Michael Chertoff, Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, Howard Dean, Ken Mehlman. See page 7.
• Transcript: "RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman On NBC's 'Meet The Press'," U.S. Newswire, August 13, 2006.
• "Mehlman on Iraq: Adapting to Win!" Angry Bear Blogspot, August 13, 2006.
• "On Meet the Press, Gregory allowed Mehlman to peddle falsehoods, attacks on Democrats," Media Matters for America, August 14, 2006.
• Lee Russ, "Holy Repub, Mehl Man, Stay the Course is Now Off Course?" Watching the Watchers, August 14, 2006.
• "Terror Turf Wars: Are Dems Winning?" The Hotline Blog/National Journal, August 14, 2006.
• "Adapt-To-Win Vs Cut-And-Run. Dems Choose To Make Midterm Elections All About Cutting-And-Running," GOP.com, August 14, 2006.
• "Meet the new war sound bite; slightly worse than the old war sound bite," The Carpetbagger Report, August 14, 2006: "what does 'win by adapting' even mean? After more than three years of tragic mistakes, it appears to mean 'make it up as we go along.'"
• "Ken Mehlman Falsely Claims Conservatives Aren’t Advocating ‘Stay The Course’ In Iraq," Think Progress, August 14, 2006. Includes video link.
• John Amato, "TDS: GOP’s Ministry of Truth," Crooks and Liars, August 15, 2006. WMP and QT video links to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which includes Mehlman speaking on Meet the Press.
• Steve Young, "The RNC/White House Department of Catchphrases Rolls Out a New One," The Huffington Post, August 15, 2006.
• "Stewart Mocks RNC Chairs 'Adapt and Win' Makeover," Truthdig, August 15, 2006. Includes The Daily Show video link.
• "Veteran Baghdad Reporter Explodes Upbeat U.S. Assessments," Editor & Publisher, August 15, 2006.