News flash: we need more troops in Iraq. Duh. The truth is: we needed far more from the very beginning – and this incremental increase, which reflects the enemy’s tenacity as much as ours, is exactly the kind of mission creep we should always have avoided. I’m still dumbfounded by the political branch’s refusal to acknowledge this before now, and the lame excuse that the only justification for more troops would be if the commanders demanded them. The level of troops – like the war in general – is far too important to be left to the military. Such decisions require political and strategic judgments that can only be made by the commander in chief. Bush’s limitations as a real war-leader are nowhere better illustrated than in this passivity on a matter of supreme importance. But better late then never. The important thing now is to win.
READING KRISTOL: One of the real skills of many neoconservatives is their message discipline. Their private concerns about the dreadful post-war planning in Iraq, and their frustrations with Rumsfeld in particular were kept absolutely under wraps until the election. These are intellectuals whose first calling is political power, rather than intellectual candor. Win first, cavil later: that’s the motto. This is not to say they are intellectually dishonest, merely that they have learned the benefits of silence when their political masters are caught with their pants down. But now the election is over, you can read the following missive from the Politburo head, Bill Kristol, with some interest:
The president presented himself for the judgment of the American people with 150,000 troops in the field, taking real casualties and on the verge of launching a major offensive. The people didn’t flinch. They showed fortitude and judgment, sticking with Bush and the difficult path he has chosen, a path in some respects made more difficult by mistakes his administration had made, but not one his opponent could be counted on to follow to success.
Translation: Bush screwed up monumentally but at least he didn’t waver; and we were able to keep the full truth of the Iraq mess from the people long enough to survive. Yes, Bush’s record did not merit re-election; but Kerry would have been far worse. (That’s why Kristol barely wrote a word about Bush for months, and wrote ceaselessly against Kerry.)
SLITHER, SLITHER: There’s more:
What remains to be done is to announce new leadership for the Department of Defense. This, surely, would be an opportunity for a strong, Bush Doctrine-supporting outsider, someone who of course would be a team player, but someone who could also work with the military and broaden support for the president’s policy. Is John McCain, or Rudy Giuliani, or Joe Lieberman too much to hope for?
Translation: Rummy’s obsessive short-staffing of the war, his reluctance to endorse the nation-building, democracy-installing agenda of the neocon right (mine too!), and his presiding over Abu Ghraib, all mean he should go. But we’re not going to say that outright, because, er, we don’t want to lose our access. Finally:
Meanwhile, the offensive in Falluja has gone better than expected, and we are following up in Mosul, Ramadi, and elsewhere as necessary. The president is clearly resolved to mobilize all available military, political, and diplomatic resources to bring off elections in Iraq, and successfully to prosecute the larger war on terror and hasten the transformation of the Middle East.
Translation: for frickin’ sake, get more troops over there! Kristol really is a master of the art of Washington suck-up, clear criticism, and keeping himself in the game. This one’s a minor classic.
The Dish 