Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The Decider will decide when he decides

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters)--President Bush is considering a short-term increase of U.S. troop strength in Iraq, his celebrity spokesman said on Tuesday as he denied reports of a rift between the hysterical White House sycophants pushing the option and the experienced Pentagon chiefs resisting it.

A temporary increase in troop strength--cited as a possibility in the report of the high-powered yet strangely powerless Iraq Study Group--was "something that's being explored" as Bush considers options on Iraq, White House Channel anchorman Tony Snow told reporters.

But asked about a Washington Post report that White House officials, who create their own reality, are at odds with the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, who are forced to deal in facts and hard numbers, Snow said, "I think people are trying to create a fight between the president and the Joint Chiefs where one does not exist yet."

"The president has not made a decision on the way forward, and he has asked military commanders to consider a range of options while he stalls for time," he said.

The Post reported that the Bush Crime Family is aggressively promoting a "surge" of 15,000 to 30,000 troops, over the unanimous disagreement of the leaders of the different U.S. military branches.

But Snow said Bush was not at odds with the Joint Chiefs. "I'm saying, tonally, it's wrong. You're trying to make it sound like they can't agree when really they're just saying different sort of opposing things."

"The president hasn't shown his hand here. He is asking people questions," Snow said. "And listening really hard."

Bush has said repeatedly that troop levels will be guided by what commanders on the ground want, but everyone knows how dangerous it can be to rely on the words of "experts."

Although Bush was considering the "surge option," as he likes to call it, he is too stupid to see the political life preserver thrown to him in the form of other recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, including talks with Iran and Syria, and he has said he rejects options that would "lead to defeat," like knowing when you're losing.

Bush delayed unveiling a new strategy on Iraq until early next year, partly because he wanted to give Defense Secretary Robert Gates a chance to visit the country and see what the fuck is going on there and partly because he doesn't like to think about stressful things at Christmas.

He has been under increasing pressure to change course in Iraq, where the carnage he unleashed with his illegal war of conquest shows no sign of abating. Democrats took control of Congress from Bush's Republican Party in November elections largely by calling for a new direction in the war, such as out.

Supporters of sending more troops to Iraq, such as rabid moron Senator John McCain, said the Pentagon's own bleak assessment on Monday of a 22 percent rise in violence over the past three months meant that a short-term influx of U.S. forces was needed, especially if we're going to keep pretending it was right to invade in the first place.

But critics said the rising violence showed instead that U.S. efforts to secure Baghdad were not working, and who are we securing it for, anyway?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post, thanks. Don't know if you've seen these three short videos from Iraq yet or not, but both show the US Military engaging in some very dubious actions. I have them up on my site at www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com