When Losing, Send in More Men to Die

George W. Bush said of his private, personal war: "We're not winning, but we're not losing."
Well, let's see. We've lost more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Permanently. Most were men but quite a few were women. We've lost more than 20,000 to wounds and injuries. We've lost billions upon billions of dollars that could have been spent wisely to benefit American citizens. And Iraq, it has lost men, women and children in the hundreds of thousands plus anything even resembling a decent way of life.
Now to me that sounds like we're losing.
So next week - and you can bank on it - this man who comes dangerously close to being a clone of Adolph Hitler will announce that he's sending 20,000 or 30,000 more troops to Iraq. How will he do this with a military stretched close to the breaking point? By telling men already there, "Sorry, you can't go home on schedule. You're due for a discharge? Sorry, forget that for now." And by sending units back that haven't had sufficient time to regroup and retrain since their last tour in Iraq. By calling up members of the National Guard and Army Reserve, many whom have paid a previous visit to Iraq. They didn't sign up for those organizations expecting tour after tour of active duty.
Now there's talk of allowing foreigners to join the United States military because not enough Americans are eager to do so. Sort of a French Foreign Legion you might say. And while these overtaxed members of our military are being asked to do more than they should, has anyone heard about either of Bush's daughters rushing to a recruiting station? Of course not.
Does Bush really care about Iraq? That merits another of course not. He cares about his legacy. But he waited too long; his legacy was shot the day he started talking about all those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Then, while people were dying there, he cracked jokes about it, pretending to look under a table to see if those elusive weapons were there. When warned of a possible insurgency he said, "Bring it on."
Well, they took him at his word and brought it on. So while he will be spending vacations at Crawford, Texas and weekends at Camp David, weary men and women who have already seen enough of Iraq will get to see a bit more of it. And more targets make it easier to hit someone. But will it be anyone from what is know as the First Family that dies there or is in danger of dying there? Of course not.

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