Today’s Must ReadYes, we will surge, but surge grudgingly.
The Washington Post goes front page with the president’s grand bargain with top generals:
Pentagon insiders say members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have long opposed the increase in troops and are only grudgingly going along with the plan because they have been promised that the military escalation will be matched by renewed political and economic efforts in Iraq.
The Post details the many reasons why military commanders doubt a troop increase will work (“no backup options,” concern the Iraqis won’t deliver, concern over “fighting in a political vacuum”), but then, you really can’t argue with the reasoning for pushing it through: “In the end, the White House favored the idea of more troops as one visible and dramatic step the administration could take.”
What’s more, the president’s plan also comes with a catchy slogan, the successor to the administration’s “As they stand up, we will stand down”:
Tonight, this [senior White House official] said, the president will explain “that we have to go up before we go down.”
Note: The Must Read is a new daily feature here at TPMm, where we’ll scan the day’s stories to bring you what we think is today’s essential reading.
