Matt Ortega

BBC News reports that President Bush will announce a troop increase, as part of his “New Way Forward” strategy, next week. The announcement will be under the central theme of “sacrifice.”

The formal adoption of a “troop surge,” or as ‘08 Presidential candidate Senator John Edwards so eloquently put it — the “McCain Doctrine,” due to his championing the cause — flies in direct contravention to the recommendation of phased withdrawal issued by the Iraq Study Group report announced last month. Escalation of U.S. involvement enjoys the support of only a miniscule fraction (10 to 15 percent) of the American public.

U.S. editor of The London Times, Gerard Baker, rounds up Bush’s late year problems and the outlook for 2007:

His Iraq policy repudiated by American voters, rebuffed by his father’s closest political ally and rejected even by the predecessor he mourned yesterday, President Bush starts a new political year ready to gamble.

Mahablog highlights these paragraphs in the Baker piece.

Mr Ford himself, it was revealed in an interview published after his death, had opposed the Iraq war privately. Aides close to Mr Bush say that he is determined not to repeat the mistakes of Vietnam.

And Mr Bush has been influenced heavily in his thinking, it seems, by Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State to Mr Ford and Richard Nixon. According to Bob Woodward’s book, State of Denial, in 2005 Mr Kissinger sent Mr Bush a copy of his famous 1969 “salted peanut” memo to Mr Nixon. In it the Secretary of State warned against troop withdrawals from Vietnam, saying that they would become to the American people like salted peanuts — “the more US troops come home, the more will be demanded”. [emphasis added]

President Bush’s disapproval of his handling the Iraq mess is at astounding levels — 70-71 percent — and this will most likely increase that number.

Looking ahead to 2008, Aaron Blake writing for The Hill, notes that the increase will be “fodder” for ‘08 GOP candidates looking to knock McCain down a notch.

With the Arizona senator’s fingerprints all over this one, when the security situation in Baghdad does not improve or, God forbid, gets worse with higher casualties, McCain’s campaign will certainly suffer.

The Left Coaster’s Steve Soto weighs in with some good advice for Democratic candidates heading into ‘08:

Call the Bush escalation the “McCain Doctrine” every chance you get, and watch Straight Talk’s poll numbers continue to decline. The only thing better would be for Democratic candidates to ask publicly if GOP candidates agree with the “McCain Doctrine” and see if they’ll put Bush and McCain on the same island by themselves. [emphasis added]

For a round-up of where the presidential candidates stand on escalation, check out my post on The Right’s Field.
This is a perfect opportunity to fragment Republicans on foreign policy. While the Democratic candidates are united against the “surge,” GOP candidates scramble in all different directions.