Seems like the Guardian has the details on the next Bush/Cheney plan. 20,000 more troops, and hope;
The "last push" strategy is also intended to give Mr Bush and the Republicans "political time and space" to recover from their election drubbing and prepare for the 2008 presidential campaign, the official said. "The Iraq Study Group buys time for the president to have one last go. If the Democrats are smart, they'll play along, and I think they will. But forget about bipartisanship. It's all about who's going to be in best shape to win the White House.
The official added: "Bush has said 'no' to withdrawal, so what else do you have? The Baker report will be a set of ideas, more realistic than in the past, that can be used as political tools. What they're going to say is: lower the goals, forget about the democracy crap, put more resources in, do it."
One of the great benefits of the election result has been much more mainstream media genuine discourse about options in Iraq -- media operating with less fear, now.
Heard a smart interview with a Colonel who is a long-term strategist, on NPR today, in which he essentially said we need to keep 20,000 advisors there for at least a decade, and those plus current levels through to a draw-down to the 20k number for the next three years --- in order to avoid absolute chaos if we withdraw immediately.
He acknowledged that it would be chaos because of the mess we've created, but argues that we can't leave it to chaos just because it was our fault in the first place...
