Bush's Strengths are his Stubborn Unwillingness to Listen to Others?

Not exactly, but that's kind of what David Brooks almost ends up saying in his latest op-ed piece. He points out no one wanted the surge, but Bush pushed for anyway, and actually got it right. It turns out to have been a successful strategy. And what do we have to thank for it? Brooks says we can and should thank Bush's stubbornness. Oh and Dick Cheney.

Bush is an outrageously self-confident man. Well, without that self-confidence he never would have overruled his generals.

In fact, when it comes to Iraq, Bush was at his worst when he was humbly deferring to the generals and at his best when he was arrogantly overruling them. During that period in 2006 and 2007, Bush stiffed the brass and sided with a band of dissidents: military officers like David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno, senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and outside strategists like Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute and Jack Keane, a retired general.

Bush is also a secretive man who listens too much to Dick Cheney. Well, the uncomfortable fact is that Cheney played an essential role in promoting the surge. Many of the people who are dubbed bad guys actually got this one right.