Senator Reid's game

I've been thinking for a few hours about the news that incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will support a brief increase in the number of US troops in America IF that increase is only temporary, and if it's tied to a larger plan to start bring US combat forces home by 2008.

This is interesting. At first I was a bit concerned that Reid was endorsing John McCain's plan to increase troop levels by tens of thousands. More troops is not the answer. And letting McCain off the hook by endorsing his plan wouldn't strike me as wise. But, Reid may not be endorsing McCain's plan at all. He may be forcing Bush and McCain to endorse his.

Reid may be using the troop increase as a backdoor way of getting a firm commitment to end our combat engagement in Iraq by 2008. By giving our commanders on the ground what they want - if in fact they want more troops - Reid and the Democrats are seen as supporting our commanders rather than undercutting the war effort, and ultimately being blamed by the Republicans for losing the war. But at the same time, Reid is giving our generals, and our commander in chief, one last change to fix things. And if they don't, we're out of there - the public will know that Bush has lost this war, Harry Reid gave him a fair shot, and it was the Democrats that finally got our troops home safely.

That's not a dumb idea. I'm still unsure about all of this, and just thinking out loud. But I'm very intrigued by giving the president what he wants, but in reality forcing him to accept what we, and the American people, want - an end to this entire debacle.