I’ve seen a number of bloggers making this point. But let me join the chorus. President Bush has for years hidden behind the fairly transparently bogus claim that decisions about troop strength and deployment will be made based on the judgment of what the military brass thinks they need. That now seems to be a dead letter, though, as the Joint Chiefs are unanimously against the White House plan to ‘surge’ troops in Baghdad for at least the first half of next year.
As significant as the JCS’s opposition, however, is the basis of their opposition. According to the Post, they believe the White House “still does not have a defined mission and is latching on to the surge idea in part because of limited alternatives, despite warnings about the potential disadvantages for the military.”
I think there’s a more blunt way of putting this. The administration refuses to deal with the actual sitaution in the country, the “limited alternatives.” So they’re pushing for more troops — without any clear idea of what they will do, other than that more must be better than less — because that’s the easiest way to avoid dealing with what’s actually happening in the country. It’s a policy of denial.
