Bush gave troops false hope.

The level of Bush's duplicity has been laid bare by the fact that he recently said that, if the Democrats did not quickly give him the Iraq war funding that he was asking for, then this would be responsible for troops having to stay longer in Iraq than Bush would desire.

During his Rose Garden remarks, Bush said it would be "irresponsible" for the Democratic leadership in Congress "to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds."

Delay "will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines, and others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to," said the president.

Now, US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has announced that a troops will have their combat tours lengthened from 12 months to 15 months and has described this as "difficult but necessary."

Gates said the longer tours would give the Pentagon the capability -- if required -- to continue the surge in Iraq for "at least a year" until next April. But he said the progress of the war would determine whether that happens, as well as how long the policy of extended tours would last.

Most active-duty Army units have been spending one year at home between 12-month deployments. However, U.S. commanders in Iraq have recently warned their soldiers to plan on tours as long as 18 months.

So, this was always what they were always going to do and Bush sought to move the blame for that on to the Democrats for not giving him the "clean bill" he desired when he must have known all along that, in order to keep his surge going till next April, this was always on the cards.

So he was using fake concern for the troops and giving the dishonest impression that, if the Dems gave him what he was asking for, then longer deployment would not have been necessary.

It is quite clear from what Gates is saying that this longer deployment was always a possibility.

It's not even the fact that he tried to put the blame for this on to the Democrats that I think is so disgusting, it's the fact that he held out the hope to the troops that if the Democrats gave him the clean bill he desired that they would not have their tours extended. He was holding out a hope that he knew to be false as he was saying it.

Why is he allowed to portray himself as the troop's guardian when he would do something that cruel? He never accepts any responsibility for anything, so there's no great shock that he would attempt to make someone else responsible for his actions; but to pretend that this was something that he would only do if forced to do so by others - whilst knowing the opposite to be the case - is simply despicable.

Tags: Bush, Iraq war, combat tour extension, Gates, surge