Fifteen Percent?

From Bush's Speech:

The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time. On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life.

There are currently 132,000 U.S. Troops in Iraq. Bush has said he will add an additional 20,000 - a 15% increase.

We are failing in the 'decisive ideological struggle of our time' and Bush only musters a 15% increase?

If Bush really believed that Western Civilization was doomed if Iraq descended into chaos (well, more than it already has) and that committing more troops to was the only way to secure our future as a nation, I would hope that he would be aware enough to do something more than squeeze a 15% increase out of an already exhausted military.

World War II, the last 'decisive ideological struggle,' saw every able bodied person drafted into the army, industry retooled for the war effort, civilians making huge sacrifices including growing their own vegetables and using ration books to get staples like sugar and gasoline.

But we're not doing any of those things.

So either this isn't the 'decisive ideological struggle' that Bush is trying to convince us it is or he's the the most derelict president in the history of the Republic.

Escalation or 'Surge' is a bullshit political gesture that does nothing but ensures that American Forces leave Iraq when somebody else is president.

War in Iraq Decisive Ideological Struggle George W. Bush