WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that President Bush is considering a surge of additional U.S. troops into Iraq to help secure Baghdad - despite strong reservations by some U.S. military leaders and the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
"The president has to decide whether he thinks some adjustments in American troop levels and what American troops would do is necessitated by current circumstances," Rice said.
"Anything he considers will certainly look at what can be done about the security of Baghdad," Rice said, describing sectarian violence in the capital as the main stumbling block to a more peaceful Iraq.
Rice said Bush, who's due to announce his new tactics in early January, wouldn't decide before further consultations with new Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and military commanders.
But a number of active and retired generals already have expressed serious doubts about sending more troops to Iraq, saying there's little likelihood that the 20,000 to 30,000 troops under discussion would make a difference.
We really shouldn't be surprised about this confirmation. The Bush White House and the Joint Chiefs have been in a major fight over this surge of troops, as reported as it has been reported yesterday in this Washington Post story. The Bush administration still doesn't have a strategy as to resolving the war in Iraq. President Bush has rejected the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. Both the Army and National Guard are breaking down due to the war in Iraq--who knows where the Bush administration is going to find the manpower needed to increase the number of American troops in Iraq. And even today, President Bush still believes that an American victory is achievable in Iraq--despite all the contradictions that have come out this past month. Instead of creating a comprehensive strategy for resolving the U.S. war in Iraq with definable, measurable goals, the Bush White House is trying to spin a tactical military decision into a complete strategy. In fact, I would guess that this increase of troops by the Bush White House is really a military decision to support a short-term political and marketing spin goal of showing the American people that the Bush White House is doing something to resolve the Iraq war over the next two years. Then after January 2009, the Bush White House will drop this entire dung-heap on the next incoming administration--whether Democratic or Republican.
Incredible.
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