The Decider Decides to Escalate
16 November 2006 10:00 am by Taylor Marsh
You're going to get really sick of this word.
Escalation.
It's that Vietnam era term in war that gets more soldiers killed after we all know a conflict is lost. Escalation is about salvaging something to pin “victory” upon. You know, like “peace with honor.” Only in Iraq there is neither, not that there was in Vietnam either. In fact, after we started escalating that's when the blood started to really flow. All because our leaders couldn't admit that it was time to go. Nixon's escalation, however, went beyond all imaginings. That Bush would decide to go the same route seems almost preordained.
So, Mr. Bush is evidently not going to “stay the course,” because what
he's opted for instead is a foreign policy tantrum. He's getting ready to accelerate the carnage and dump more U.S. soldiers into the desert quicksand of Iraq, because he cannot envision a failure attributed to his presidency. It's all about him.
Of course, losing in Iraq will only hurt The Decider's unpresidential ego. He's not the one with his life on the line, now is he? No, he never is.
President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies
must make “a last big push” to win the war in Iraq and that instead
of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up
to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's
internal deliberations.Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in
the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive
impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired
by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said. …US plans
last big push in Iraq
Strategy document calls for extra 20,000 troops, aid for Iraqi army and regional
summit
There's a reason all those politically appealing faces, but no Middle Eastern experts, were put on the Iraq Study Group. It's so Bush could have cover
and look like he was doing something when he actually wasn't. It's like I've
said before. Bush is the commander in chief and so the final decision rests with
him. He's also got this emperor tick, thinking that the people voting against
the war doesn't matter, because he is after all The Decider.
It's one “last big push,” which includes adding 20,000 more troops, regardless of what General Abizaid said yesterday that no more American troops are needed. Of course, General Abizaid also said redeployment
wasn't an issue. It's what twisted McCain's escalation nose and got him to charge Abizaid with advocating the “status quo.”
We're in one hell of a mess now, people. Democrats better be prepared to push
back hard or we'll get into the presidential season with a serious escalation
in place. Picture that with John McCain running for the White House and you've
got recipe for a real… er… What do you call Iraq at that point? We're running
out of disaster terms, just like in the bad old days of Vietnam.
