thinkprogress.org — Research compiled by ThinkProgress shows that when ?surge? was first adopted by the mainstream media in November 2006, the term was specifically defined as a ?temporary,? ?short-term? increase in U.S. forces. But according to new reports, the Bush administration is advocating a long-term increase of forces lasting at least 18 months.
Jan 10, 2007 View in Crawl 4
shawnfassettJan 10, 2007
Isn't this going to cost an extra $7 billion?
Closed AccountJan 11, 2007
Why didn't they just hire 20000 more mercs? They already have 60000 on the ground in Iraq, and they're not burdened by the "restricting rules of engagement" Bush feels regular troops are hampered by. As an added bonus, the atrocities they commit never reach the press, and many of them are not US citizens so if they get killed it doesn't register on the official kill-count.
freffJan 11, 2007
@Gabriel:They are complaining that the Bush administration emphatically resisted characterizing their buildup as an escalation from the media, making the distinction that a "surge" was more appropriate since "escalation" is used to describe a more permanent deployment. This was at the time when some Democrats and military leaders were saying that they could support a surge as long as it was tied to a specific mission. Meaning that you bring in troops, accomplish a specific mission (think Operation Al-Fajr in Falluja back in 2004), and then troops redeploy. The news media relented, and has used the term "surge" ever since.Now, it's clear that Bush's plan is a long-term one. The "specific mission" that was implied when the White House first began formulating their Iraq plan has morphed into an 18-24 deployment complete with additional aircraft carriers. I'm not sure if you're familiar with military operations, but something of this length of time is not a "mission". It's a deployment, and by the rules that the White House set out, constitutes an "escalation" in US military activity in Iraq.It's all a matter of semantics, but this is the battle that this Administration is determined to win above all others it seems. The battle of the information that Americans consume, as it relates to the world around them.
littlebylittleJan 11, 2007
Yeah but don't worry. All that money will be injected back into our economy ... into the Corporate Military War Machine's pockets. And then it will trickle down ... into the trust funds of the Children of the 'elite.' Remember, they are the important people ....... They know things.