Still Surgin'

Okay, yesterday I gave you my pre-speech opinions via my Uncle Joe Bile character. Then I watched the Bush, the whole thing, awake and sober. I didn't finish off the bottle of Scotch till well after he got off the air (Glenmorangie, yum).

So, let me ask you, besides the form of the rhetoric, and a slight touch of well rehearsed humility, is there anything actually new or different about this "change of course?"

It's "only" 20,000 more troops (actually, 20,000 of the same troops on longer tours and shorter stateside rotation), not the 100-200,000 troops that a real "surge" strategy would require. And it sure as hell isn't any kind of a stepping down or withdrawal.

Still, it's not exactly the same failed strategy. It's more of the same failed strategy. It's the same, but different.

Now, according to the President, when we "go from door to door" looking for insurgents, we'll have more soldiers to stay behind and maintain the areas that we've secured. He made it sound like they're ringing doorbells and asking if everybody is alright inside, rather than kicking in doors (or what's left of them) and machine-gunning down anybody who moves.

And, the president cautioned, if we pull out too soon, we'll end up having to stay in Iraq a lot longer. That's right. If we leave, we'll be stuck there, but if we stay, we can go home. Really. That's what he said.

It was a kinder, gentler, more conciliatory stayin' of the course, but in the end, all he really said was, "Screw you, we don't care what the people (American or Iraqi), the generals, or the Iraq Study Group have to say, we're Staying the Damn Course!"

So, by accepting more responsibility for American troops we'll force the Iraqi's to take responsibility for their own security, and by re-committing American troops we'll be able to bring them home, and by fighting a civil war in Iraq we'll soon capture terrorist master-mind Osama bin Laden.

Oh, wait, there was no mention of Osama in the speech. I guess the statute of limitation on that September 11 thing has run out. Too bad.