Mo’ Troops, Mo’ Problems: Bush Adds Fuel To Fire In Iraq — Protestors Mark Gitmo Anniversary

DALLAS President George W. Bush announced an escalation to the U.S. involvement in Iraq last Wednesday night at the White House.

This plan which increases troop levels in the most violent parts of the war-torn country quickly came under fire from the Democrats who control both houses of Congress as well as those from within his own political party.

About five U.S. brigades, or 21,500 U.S. troops, will be deployed to the Iraqi capitol of Baghdad and the Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province.

Except for strong words for the Iraqi government to stand up for itself, Bush’s plan calls for no timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal and no benchmarks with which to gauge progress in the region.

In his televised address that over 45 million American watched, Bush admitted to making mistakes in the Iraq war. However, advice from top military brass and the Iraq Study Group (ISG) the bipartisan, Congressionally-appointed task force went unrealized in his plan.

Recommendations included a phased withdrawal of all combat forces from Iraq in 15 months, aid given to the Iraqi government on conditions that peace among the sectarian forces, and an olive branch to Syria and Iran in partnership to secure Iraq.

Republicans and Democrats agreed that a political element was required for the sectarian violence to stop among the Sunni and Shia in Iraq. This element was also left out of Bush’s plan.

The American public met the president’s announcement with deep concern.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Thursday found that 70 percent of Americans were against deploying more troops to Iraq.

President Bush’s own approval rating fell to a new low (32 percent) in this specific poll.

The job approval rating for this new Democratic-controlled Congress rose a bit to 32 percent from 27 percent, according to the AP-Ipsos poll.

The Iraq war also gained percentage points up from 24 percent three months ago to 38 percent as the most important problem facing the United States, according to the public in the poll.

This four-year-old conflict has killed over 650,000 Iraqis, according to a Johns Hopkins University study, and over 3,000 U.S. soldiers, according to government records.

The poll was conducted via telephone during the three days before Bush explained the troop increase on television.

The Democratic Party reacted strongly to the president’s troop escalation. However, it members in Congress have yet to stand as a united front to cut off funding for military operations in Iraq.

The newly-elected Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said her party backs boosting the size of the military but refuses to clamp spending for U.S. troops still deployed.

In the Senate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) submitted legislation to stop funding to increase troop level contingent upon a congressional vote.

Potential and intentional presidential candidates from the Democratic Party in 2008 took shots at Bush’s plan but none save Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) have yet to