1-21-07 The Surge

As with anything else the Bush administration's public relations machine attempts to "inform" America about, the entirety of the so-called "Surge" of an additional 21,500 troops in Iraq is just more smoke and mirrors.

In addition, there's the major media "reporting" of all this baloney. You'd think that there was a massive "issue" being dealt with in all of this, and that the "controversy" surrounding this so-called "Surge" was one of the most important things that is happening right now. As if this were the turning point in some grand scenario of "us versus them"...

Anyone who now believes that Bush, all on his own, is "escalating" the war in Iraq, and that this all flies directly in the face of the majority of Americans' polled interests, including the newly elected democrats in congress who, for all the media hype, are making this "issue" a "defining moment" in the confrontation... Well, you've got another think coming.

This is hardly anything to get excited about. Here's the facts: there is no surge of additional troops forthcoming. It's essentially an accounting trick.

Here's how it works: troops already scheduled to go to Iraq will go a little earlier than planned. Troops scheduled to return home from Iraq will go home a little later than planned.

If you want a more detailed explanation of this, check out the Mudville Gazette here.

Both sides of the aisle, of course, find this PR baloney of "The Surge" to be a great political hay-maker. It doesn't matter whether you stand for or against the war, because this big hoopla is an opportunity to toot the horn, cast the vote, and make the speeches that otherwise would get no media coverage at all. And anything that's actually done for or against this so-called "surge" is nothing but vapor, anyway, since nothing is really going to change that wasn't already scheduled to happen quite some time ago.