Incredibly, Bush adopted a neo-con escalation plan for Iraq, but now isn't going to send the large number of additional troops the escalation plan calls for. The neo-con plan Bush adopted calls for an increase of 32,000 troops, not 20,000 troops, which is what Bush is reportedly planning. Bush has short-changed his own plan by nearly 50%
From the International Herald-Tribune:
Among the advice he has received in recent weeks is a bold troop-buildup plan, written in part by a retired general who was the Army vice chief of staff when the Iraq war began in March 2003.Bush is short-changing his own escalation. So not only is Bush going against the advice of his generals, he's going against the advice of his own brainiacs who created the new "surge" plan. Why is he doing this? Because we don't have enough troops left. Bush has destroyed our military. From the Wash Post:
That general, Jack Keane, argues for sending an extra seven Army brigades and Marine regiments, about 32,000 troops, in two phases beginning in March and April. The first infusion would be 25,000, followed by an additional 7,000 several months later.
In his view, the current strategy of passing security responsibility to the Iraqis to establish the peace is failing.
Frederick W. Kagan, an American Enterprise Institute scholar who wrote the plan with Keane and others, asserts that such a troop increase must be sustained for at least 18 months.
Then there was the thorny problem of finding enough troops to deploy. Those who favored a "surge," such as Kagan and McCain, were looking for a sizable force that would turn the tide in Baghdad. But the Joint Chiefs made clear they could muster 20,000 at best -- not for long, and not all at once.
