Where's The Plan, Mr. President?

Despite Republican and media assertions to the contrary, the "surge" in Iraq failed.  The escalation, which President Bush promised would directly result in political progress in that country, has neither pressured the Iraqi government into much-needed action nor has it operated to produce long-term stability.  Rather, as was warned before the escalation, the President's "New Way Forward" was just a step backwards towards burying ourselves indefinitely in a conflict which continues to drain our country of it's best citizens and of billions of dollars.

As we discussed yesterday, American deaths have increased in Iraq this year, and the U.S. government, despite its specious claims of "progress," will not be drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq (even though the ability to pull troops out would be the plainest indicator of claimed "success".)

McClatchy News explains the increase in violence:

The fact that more Americans have been killed in [Diyala and Ninevah] provinces has some fretting that the United States is fighting another round of "whack-a-mole," a term that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once used to describe chasing insurgents and terrorists from one part of Iraq to another.

Last month, American and Iraqi forces launched an operation to rid Mosul - Iraq's third-largest city - of Islamic militants, a battle that could last months, a senior U.S. commander there said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the subject publicly.

Is the shift in casualties "an indication that Al-Qaida is on the run or that we are entering another phase of a long war?" asked retired Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan, a senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Others argue that the drop in American deaths in Baghdad and Al-Anbar is evidence that Al-Qaida in Iraq has been weakened, and that operations such as those in Diyala and Ninevah will weaken it further.

"Al-Qaida knows the surge is working," President Bush said Thursday in a speech in Las Vegas. "They no longer have a safe haven in Anbar province; they're on the run."

However, Pentagon officials have said that although Al-Qaida in Iraq is weaker, they still don't know when they'll be able to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq below the pre-surge level of about 140,000.

American commanders in Iraq are even more circumspect. Nearly all agree that Al-Qaida in Iraq is weaker since the U.S. troop buildup began, but they caution that violence probably would return to places such as Baghdad and Al-Anbar if American troops left.

In other words, the President's strategy has failed so miserably after nearly five years that American troops are obligated, under the administration's plan, to remain in the quicksand of the President's policy, for an indefinite amount of time, sustaining an undetermined yet surely escalating number of casualties.  And that would be fine with Senator McCain, who doesn't care if Americans stay in Iraq for another 100 years.

The President's "New Way Forward" -- the so-called "surge" -- has failed.  We cannot afford to wait for a Democratic president to propose a reasonable and responsible plan for Iraq.  Our soldiers and our nation deserve better.  From this president, and from this Congress.