December 29, 2006 6:15 AM

Yep...real Americans don't "cut and run", eh?

A ‘surge’ in Iraq defined: It must be large and lasting. The best military strategy among all options out there.

Reports on the Bush administration’s efforts to craft a new strategy in Iraq often use the term “surge” but rarely define it. Estimates of the number of troops to be added in Baghdad range from fewer than 10,000 to more than 30,000. Some “surges” would last a few months, others a few years. We need to cut through the confusion. Bringing security to Baghdad ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ the essential precondition for political compromise, national reconciliation and economic development ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ is possible only with a surge of at least 30,000 combat troops lasting 18 months or so. Any other option is likely to fail.

It sure is easy when you reduce it to the level of an academic exercise, isn’t it? It’s not a war with Americans dying for a cause no one can reasonably define. No, it’s so much easier when it’s viewed as an abstract political and military question. Don’t like what’s happening? No problem; we’ll just send in a few thousand more troops…and we’ll call it a temporary surge to make people think that it’s not a long-term thing. We’ll get Fox News Channels to beat their patriotic drums, and before you know it no one will DARE question our motives, eh?

I suppose we should keep in mind that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader hasn’t announced his “plan”, whatever the Hell it may eventually turn out to be. Current speculation seems to be holding out the possibility of a “temporary surge” of troops in Iraq. I’ve heard numbers in the neighborhood of 30,000 troops for somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 months. If true, these numbers are neither “temporary” nor a “surge”. We might as well just call it what it is- an escalation. Despite all of the propaganda and the “justifications” used to explain the “necessity” for sending more troops, there is no argument that will convince me- and likely the majority of Americans- that sending yet more troops to Iraq will achieve anything except to have yet more Americans come home in boxes.

When will Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader come to grips with the reality that his war is an abject failure? And when will his fellow neoCon thugs recognize that Iraq is not an abstract academic exercise? At some point, Americans are going to need to stand up and scream, “ENOUGH!” Or are we really OK with another Vietnam-like escalation of this senseless and immoral war?

NOW CAN WE IMPEACH THE LYING, MURDERING BASTARD??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 29, 2006 6:15 AM.

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