Escalating troop levels in Iraq is exactly what Cheney wants to do in order to more solidly establish a base for pro-Western commercial interests. Cheney and Bush are not mad, they are cooly calculating how much money and how many lives they can "use" to maintain Iraq as an Industrial Colony in the Middle East.
The hardest part is getting your foot in the door. Cheney had to wait almost half of his adult life for the right opportunity to arise. He thought he had it made with the first Bush but much to his dismay that president was far too wimpy and/or concerned with diplomacy.
But with the second Bush, Cheney found a perfect dupe to allow for colonization of the Middle East. And with the McGuffin of The War on Terror framed in such starkness by the 9/11 attacks, Cheney found the perfect opening into which he could get his foot in the door.
And even though 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq (or at least the equivalent of, let's say, what the right-wing government-is-bad movement had to to with the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building) making a somewhat believable leap to link bin Laden to Saddam was EASY for Cheney. The cult of personality in the US makes it very easy to link two individuals. People remember faces not facts, so just keep showing pictures of two older men from the Middle East and soon enough everyday people will psychologically link them.
In the end Bush and Cheney don't care about polls. They do NOT give a shit about what people think. This administration is concerned with the same exact things as the CEOs of Exxon-Mobil & Raytheon & Boeing & Chevron & Conoco Phillips, etc.
They WANT permanent bases in Iraq. They also WANT high oil prices.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT.
Cheney and Bush are not crazy as many people suggest. They are loyal to industry and to the mentors at the Project for a New American Century. The quicker everyone realizes that this administration is acting consistently to spend volunteer lives, diplomatic capital, and huge amounts of tax dollars to deeply root an Industrial Colony in the middle of the Middle East the quicker members of Congress might get the gumption to stand up to them.