A different view

Falling on Both Sides of the Escalation

It's interesting to see the positions that people are taking on the Iraq war 'surge' or escalation, whatever you want to call it.

I'd expect Senator Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to be against it. Biden: "I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost. They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up."

McCain and Lieberman (I still don't understand how Connecticut could re-elect him) are staunchly pro-surge, though this may be posturing. McCain: “the surge must be substantive and sustained”. Lieberman not only supports an escalation in Iraq but appears to be ready to expand into Iran as well, declaring that there was “an axis of evil with headquarters in Tehran.”

Somewhat more surprising was Charles Krauthammer's column in the Washington Post where he showed complete contempt of the neo-con dream. "We should not be surging American troops in defense of such a government."

Also coming out anti-surge is conservative Ollie North, who has spent a lot of time on the ground (behind the troops) in Iraq. A "surge" or "targeted increase in U.S. troop strength" or whatever the politicians want to call dispatching more combat troops to Iraq isn't the answer.

Dan Senor penned an op-ed in the über conservative Wall Street Journal calling not just for a surge, but a large surge. "10,000-15,000 more troops would be insufficient to stabilize Baghdad and at the same time maintain a strong presence in Anbar."

General Keane wants a surge that lasts 12 - 18 months and lives and eats with the Iraqis. "What is different is you bring in a 24/7 force and they stay in those neighborhoods and they do not go back to their bases. They stay in the neighborhoods," Keane said.

It's going to be a battle. With Democrats unwilling to cut budgets but having no other influence on the outcome, Bush can do anything he wants. Still, it won't be without a lot of verbal jousting.

As E. J. Dionne Jr. says, "The surge... is seen by most Democrats and some Republicans as a rebuke to the majority whose November ballots signaled a negative verdict on the Iraq war."

To me, it still seems like watching someone sitting in front of a slot machine in Las Vegas, sure that if they just put in one more coin they've got to win.

posted by don1one @ 6:16 PM