Moving The Goalposts

Here is President Bush, yesterday, unintentionally admitting he has no plan for Iraq:
"I haven't made any decisions about troop increases or troop decreases, and won't until I hear from a variety of sources."

Of course, as Talking Points Memo reminds us, we've been here before-

August 2005: President Bush said Thursday no decision has been made on increasing or decreasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, saying that as "Iraqis stand up, we will stand down" and that only conditions on the ground will dictate when it is time for a reduction in U.S. forces.

April 2004: "Gen. John P. Abizaid, the senior commander in the Middle East, has asked for contingency plans for increasing the number of troops in Iraq. No decision has been made to supplement the 134,000 troops now there, and White House officials said it was unclear whether such a move would help the situation."

November 2003: "The President is going to do what is most effective in Iraq, and he gets recommendations from his commanders on troop levels and what is needed. No decisions have been made about future troops levels," said National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice.

One reason this war has dragged on so long is because they keep making 'turning the corner' promises and saying that in six months we'll reevaluate where we stand. Then when that six-month mark arrives, they just repeat the same thing over again, until it's three and a half years later and we're worse off than ever before.

Israel realized this past summer after a month that their war was a mistake and that they needed to cut their losses. Us? We're far more stubborn. Saving face is all that matters to us.

Atrios blames the pundits, including many in the 'liberal' media who cheerleaded this war at the outset (and still are nervous about this 'withdrawal' talk), lest anyone think they were like us dirty hippies who had crazy beliefs in 2002/2003 like... that this war was a mistake based on questionable intelligence that would distract us from Afghanistan and other issues and was being done solely based on the personal agenda of the neocons pulling the strings on the Bush foreign policy. You know, craazzzy stuff like that.

The 'serious' people have just been delaying realistic exit strategies, which could've begun to be implemented well over a year ago, because they are holding on to delusions that if we just stay a little while longer, someone (Bush, McCain, Baker and co.) will come up with some amazing plan no one's thought of yet and save the day. They are, as Fareed Zarkaria said, "just willing more american deaths".

And the voices of the American people who just two weeks sent a message to the White House to start wrapping this up are once again disregarded. And the same people who have been fucking everything up for the past few years proceed full speed ahead.

Surprise- today comes news of possible troop increases, just what the doctor didn't order-

Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.

The idea, dubbed the “surge option” by some officials, would involve increasing American forces by 20,000 troops or more for several months in the hope of improving security, especially in Baghdad. That would mark a sharp rise over the current baseline of 144,000 troops...

Not that everyone agrees with this, of course-

But some officials and senior military officers are arguing against the idea, saying that it could undercut a sense of urgency for Iraqi units to take on a greater role in fighting the insurgency and preventing sectarian attacks. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, told Congress last week that the military was stretched so thin that such an increase could not be sustained over the long term.

And 'round and 'round we go... at least until the Democrats force the President's hand.

They all know that none of this will work; they just want 'one last push' to try and save face in hopes that this might not blow up in their face come the 2008 election cycle. It will, and our Middle East policy for the next 20 years will be dealing with the repercussions of this madness.

Finally, Josh Marshall throws in his 2 cents on the President's failure to understand Vietnam.