Never-Ending War

It should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to the endless war in Iraq that the surge ordered by General Petraeus is nothing more than a political stalling tactic, ordered by the this president by proxy through his military leaders. It now seems clear that the Bush administration’s real intention is to keep this generation’s Vietnam going long enough to dump it on the lap of the next president to fix. According to documents released last night to time with Petraeus’ testimony today before congress, his recommendation is to hold off on withdrawing any major American forces for another six months; by next summer, the US will only be able to withdraw enough troops to equal the levels on the ground (roughly 130,000) before the surge. Now, the battle rages on in Washington. But a NYT/CBS poll out today suggests that only 5% of Americans trust the current administration to resolve the war.