The real reason for Bush's escalation

Recently appointed General David Patraeus is known to be brutally honest.  His latest comments shed more light on the real motivations why the Administration backed an escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq:

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who took over as the top U.S. commander inIraq in February, cited the disparity last week. "The Washington clockis moving more rapidly than the Baghdad clock," he said in a televisioninterview. "So we're obviously trying to speed up the Baghdad clock abit and to produce some progress on the ground that can, perhaps . . .put a little more time on the Washington clock."

So when you flood a city with tens of thousands of troops, it may not produce any long-term political breakthroughs -- but at least you can use any short-term statistical decrease in urban violence as a public relations ploy to buy more time.  In other words, the escalation is just an effort by Bush and Cheney to put more time on the clock, even though it doesn't change the fact that we are still down 44-7 at the two-minute warning in the 4th quarter.

Reports have shown that because some insurgents have been flushed out of Baghdad, there are an increased number of attacks in suburbs such as Ramadi.  Just a few days ago in Ramadi, a chlorine bomb went off there killing 27 people.  And just this morning, the military announced the deaths of 4 U.S. soldiers in Diyala.  We can get our short-term security in parts of Baghdad.  But in most of the country, violence is getting worse.

As Patraeus said, the Washington clock is ticking.