Bush's Wobbly Way Forward

Instead of listening to the Iraq Study Group, Bush is going to rely on his less than successful foreign policy instincts. Actually, the only thing he knows is politics and spin, and—surprise—there's every indication that he will attempt more photo ops and spin. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo puts it as succinctly as I've seen it:

Administration official: Surge "more of a political decision than a military one."

For a fuller analysis, here's Dan Froomkin of White House Briefing:

So what is President Bush about to do? By all indications: escalate. His "new way forward" in Iraq appears to call for more troops -- along with a series of other measures that might have helped if he'd taken them three years ago.

News reports suggest that Bush's plan is not likely to win enthusiastic support, even from within his own party. But my question is: Where's the outrage?

If the vox populi and the cognoscenti agree that throwing more American bodies at the problem will only result in more American deaths, then how is the apparent Bush plan anything short of a betrayal of the troops and an expression of contempt for the will of the people?

And is there any more plausible explanation for Bush's behavior than that he is willing to sacrifice more troops so he won't have to admit -- at least not yet -- that he made a mistake? Is that a good enough reason to ask even one more soldier to die?

Here's a simple question for the average, sensible American: when it comes to the Iraq Study Group, should a president with failing policies continue to trust his own judgment or should he trust those with a reasonable record of success? The answer is obvious but Bush and his neoconservative followers still think they know best. Actually, Bush's father in 1991 knew best and junior pretty much knows it by now. For him, it's now reduced to pure politics and the avoidance of accountability. Bush has no right to saddle Americans any further with his blunders.