Bush is on TV vowing to stay the course, or assuring the troops that 'we are not going to give up' cause 'we' are 'committed' to 'victory!'
Bush 'rejects' the 'ideas that will lead to defeat.'
The Decider keeps saying "Succeed in Iraq!" "Succeed in Iraq!" and "An Iraq that governs and sustains itself." "We're not going to give up!" "Victory!"
Face it folks, we are staying the course, with maybe 40,000 more troops to make it happen. More troops, more deaths, what the hey. The American people don't want this war? Tough. The Decider is in charge.
Bush is a madman. The madman is in charge and the rest of us are along for the ride.
L.A. Times: Pentagon's plan: More U.S. troops in Iraq .... Best path to victory . . .
WASHINGTON — As President Bush weighs new policy options for Iraq, strong support has coalesced in the Pentagon behind a military plan to "double down" in the country with a substantial buildup in American troops, an increase in industrial aid and a major combat offensive against Muqtada Sadr, the radical Shiite leader impeding development of the Iraqi government.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff will present their assessment and recommendations to Bush at the Pentagon today. Military officials, including some advising the chiefs, have argued that an intensified effort may be the only way to get the counterinsurgency strategy right and provide a chance for victory.
The approach overlaps somewhat a course promoted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). But the Pentagon proposals add several features, including the confrontation with Sadr, a possible renewed offensive in the Sunni stronghold of Al Anbar province, a large Iraqi jobs program and a proposal for a long-term increase in the size of the military.
Such an option would appear to satisfy Bush's demand for a strategy focused on victory rather than disengagement. It would disregard key recommendations and warnings of the Iraq Study Group, however, and provide little comfort for those fearful of a long, open-ended U.S. commitment in the country. Only 12% of Americans support a troop increase, whereas 52% prefer a fixed timetable for withdrawal, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
"I think it is worth trying," a defense official said. "But you can't have the rhetoric without the resources. This is a double down" — the gambling term for upping a bet.
Such a proposal, military officials and experts caution, would be a gamble. Any chance of success probably would require major changes in the Iraqi government, they said. U.S. Embassy officials would have to help usher into power a new coalition in Baghdad that was willing to confront the militias. And the strategy also would require more U.S. spending to increase the size of the U.S. military and for an Iraqi jobs program.
Graphic via Internet Weekly
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