Friday, January 12, 2007
“Reinforcements” [Rich Lowry]
Condi Rice said yesterday that the troops surge is not an “escalation,” but an “augmentation.” This is so terribly lame that if the administration tries to stick to this verbiage it will only hurt its cause. I think the additional troops should be called, more straightforwardly, “reinforcements.” This sets up a natural political argument for those Republicans who favor the surge: “The Democrats oppose sending reinforcements to our embattled troops in Iraq.” Moreover, if the administration would move faster on Petraeus—per Dan's point below—pro-surge Republicans would be in a position to say, “The Democrats oppose sending our troops the reinforcements that our general in Iraq says they need to succeed.” None of this is going to reverse the politics of the surge, but it might help at the margins.
01/12 12:01 PM
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