When President Bush spoke to the nation last week about his new plan for Iraq, which includes a “surge” of approximately 20,000 more troops to that country, I was aware of how warily I listened to his words. He is an effective speaker in such scripted situations, and I understand why many would be influenced by his urgent and sincere tone. However, I have learned too much about this man and his administration over the last six years to listen with much credulity. As he spoke, I kept asking myself, “Why should I believe you?” I expect that I’m one of millions who asked that same question.

After the Iraq Study Group released their report in December, I hoped that the Bush administration would adopt its recommendations. When Bush distanced himself from the report and said that he would announce his plan later, I suspected that he wanted some time to elapse so that our entertainment-distracted populace would forget the report and its grave findings (if it had paid any attention at all to them in the first place).

And so we were presented with the surge plan. Hendrik Hertzberg in the New Yorker recently described the Iraq War in this way: “a four-year journey from shock and awe through stay the course to surge and pray.” Those last three words capture nicely the desperation and ineptitude that characterizes U.S. leadership of the war in Iraq. The plan seems unlikely to succeed, as another New Yorker writer, Steve Coll, has argued in a strong essay.

Surge and pray. I’ll pray for the Iraqi people and for the coalition troops there, but I’ll also pray that the U.S. Congress stops Bush’s plan from being implemented and forces the country to take a different course in Iraq.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am and is filed under Politics.