Fuggedaboudit

by digby

Oh for gawd’s sake. Why does anyone even pretend that Bush is going to listen to reason?

The president signaled Wednesday that neither the study group’s pessimistic assessment nor the bleak situation in Iraq nor the results of the midterm elections have shaken his belief that victory in Iraq is possible.

“We’re not going to give up,” said Bush, who plans to announce his new strategy early next year.

While some key decisions haven’t been made yet, the senior officials said the emerging strategy includes:

-A shift in the primary U.S. military mission in Iraq from combat to training an expanded Iraqi army, generally in line with the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations.

Huh? Isn’t that what they’ve been saying for years? If I recall correctly, the slogan (er… strategy) two slogans before last was “we’ll stand down when the Iraqis stand up.”

– A possible short-term surge of as many as 40,000 more American troops to try to secure Baghdad, along with a permanent increase in the size of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps, which are badly strained by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Awesome! Doubling Down on St John McCain! Now who’s got the bigger codpiece, huh?

[…]

-A revised Iraq political strategy aimed at forging a “moderate center” of Shiite Muslim, Sunni Muslim Arab and Kurdish politicians that would bolster embattled Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. The goal would be to marginalize radical Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents.

What a good idea. They should send Joe Lieberman over to show them how it’s done. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear from him. Barring that we could hire a witch doctor to put a spell on the Iraqi government. Either way, I’m sure it will work.

-More money to combat rampant unemployment among Iraqi youths and to advance reconstruction, much of it funneled to groups, areas and leaders who support Maliki and oppose the radicals.

Excellent. We really can’t spend enough money on this. And our history of smart spending in Iraq by these people should give the American public a lot of confidence (and Halliburton a lot of bonuses.)

-Rejection of the study group’s call for an urgent, broad new diplomatic initiative in the Middle East to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reach out to Iran and Syria.

Instead, the administration is considering convening a conference of Iraq and neighboring countries – excluding Iran and Syria – as part of an effort to pressure the two countries to stop interfering in Iraq.

I’m sure they’ll be very impressed.

I have always thought that Bush’s temperament was such that he would not withdraw from Iraq. And that temperament is being stoked these days by some very impressive people:

Bush appears to have been emboldened by criticism of its proposals as defeatist by members of the Republican Party’s conservative wing and their allies on the Internet, the radio and cable TV.

But we knew that didn’t we?

The Braintrust that is running America:

Two more years…

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