Whatever you may call it, Bush's escalating surge in Iraq is nothing but trouble. First he said an additional 21,500 troops would be sent to Iraq, now it might be somewhere in the ballpark of 30,000 due to the need of support staff (including Afghanistan operations). Sounds like another case of Bush's fuzzy math. Unfortunately it isn't as simple as sending fresh soldiers. The process involves sending less people home to rest and more to go over and fight.
From the Huffington Post:
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — President Bush asked Congress on Saturday for $3.2 billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he announced in January.Bush wants Congress to fund 3,500 new U.S. troops to expand training of local police and army units in Afghanistan. The money also would pay for the estimated 3,500 existing U.S. troops he already announced would be staying longer in the region to counter an anticipated Taliban offensive in Afghanistan this spring.
In Iraq, most of the additional troops would help with the latest Baghdad security plan, which is getting under way in the capital. The money would pay for 2,400 combat support troops, 2,200 military police forces and 129 troops for reconstruction teams.
Bush took a direct swipe at the Democratic Congress, basically taunting them to cower to his devastating will. The expression on his face shows this whole thing to be a game where he can be the bully and make Democrats do what he says. Unfortunately many Democrats have been divided over what to do and are mainly acquiescing to the Decider's every wish. In some cases they want to spend more money than the Adminstration wants in order to attach 'strings'. These strings do nothing to rein in Bush's wild plans and Bush merely scoffs at them.
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