Surging the Troops

I sort of agree with Kevin Drum. It's an obvious, crazy-ass Hail Mary scheme if ever there was one but apparently we're determined not to walk away in quasi-defeat... it must be a totally embarrassing defeat that will yield even more unpredictable results. And yet, if we don't give it this last effort, it will be Vietnam all over again where the establishment casts itself as Monday morning quarterback to blame everything from the media to the American people for its own blundering strategy and failed execution.

Personally, what bothers me most is that we're backing into the plan solution first, i.e. we know what we're asking the military to do (surge the troops) but we still haven't defined the objective. This should scare anyone who has even the vaguest idea of the complexity of the situation we face in Iraq beyond "defeating the insurgents."

I can't imagine that 20,000-30,000 recycled troops are going to make that big of a difference in the scheme of things but I guess we're about to find out.