Surge Protection

Dubya is expected to announce a new plan on Wednesday for victory (again) in Iraq which will involve a sending an extra 20,000 troops and about $1 billion in additional reconstruction money to fund a back-to-work campaign for Iraqis. This despite Bush saying a year and a half ago that sending extra troops would only undermine his stratergy in Iraq. He has a new strategy now, a "surge" which will pacify Baghdad and lead to a final "mission accomplished".

The new surge is as likely to be successful as the last one - Operation Together Forward - was. Despite the surge into the capital, Iraqi police and civilan deaths skyrocketed, more than tripling even while the operation was in progress. As for the reconstruction package: in a nation where unemployment is so high it cannot be accurately measured but is at least 40% it is very much a case of too little, too late.

Gen. Wesley Clark isn't at all confident that Bush's plan will deliver any kind of victory and suggests instead a surge of diplomacy, saying that "underlying problems are political, not military". Other experts agree and also point out that "U.S. attempts to reconcile Iraq's warring factions are excluding the very people who need reconciling -- the Sunni-led insurgents and their archenemies, the Shiite militias."

These groups are now talking to each other with a view to ceasing their hostilities under the umbrella of a nationalist coalition that includes both Sadr and Sunni secularist Saleh al-Mutlak. Their plans don't include the Maliki government and don't include kowtowing to either Iranian or American national interests. But they hold more promise for Iraqi peace than any number of Dubya surges.

Cynical Postscript Bush's newest theme-de-jour is "sacrifice" - but when he talks about it, just remember he doesn't mean himself or his rich pals.

Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline.

Based on an exhaustive analysis of tax records and census data, the study reinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush’s tax cuts reduced rates for people at every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the very top — especially the top 1 percent of income earners.

That's the kind of surge Bush really likes.