Saturday, January 06, 2007

To Surge or not to Surge

Media Matters for America points out that CNN's Bill Schneider says the Bush Administration is using the term surge in regard to troop levels in Iraq because it denotes something temporary.

In a January 5 report on what Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer labeled the "great surge debate," Schneider noted that the words surge and escalation imply different timeframes:

SCHNEIDER: Why "surge"? Why not "escalate"? Because "surge" sounds temporary. Waves surge and decline. "Escalation" sounds long-term. President Lyndon Johnson escalated the deployment of U.S. troops to Vietnam in 1965. That war did not end for another 10 years. Whatever you call, it sending more troops would provoke a political firestorm.

Everything, and we mean everything, this Administration has done has been for political reasons. They have shown a callous disregard toward the American people, and continue to show that same disregard for the American troops.

Bring 'em home now!