Just as many people through intestinal fortitude stop their addiction as do people who rely on support groups.
I quit on my own, and later joined a support group. You can't say they are mutally exclusive. You're not an expert on addiction, you don't seem to understand it, so it might be better if you didn't opine on it.
I don't think W would ever give them the benefit of his taking a drink. He knows that if he drinks he loses. He is way too proud for that.
I met President Bush at a rally here in NH. I know that he does not want anyone to even consider him a recovered alcoholic let alone an active alcoholic. He may have had a little "drinking problem" but he does not consider himself an alcoholic (hey, whatever works!). He tries to distance himself as far as possible from any image related to drinking.
I quit drinking cold turkey 12 years ago....come this December. I was a hard drinker. I did do a very little AA, but I could count on both hands the meetings I went to, and I went, not to help myself, but to reassure sceptics that I had quit for good.