President Bush Plans to Deploy More Troops to Iraq

According to CNN, the President of the U.S. is ready to send approximately 20,000 additional troops over to Iraq. The stated goal is an effort to bring peace to Baghdad, combined with a goal of handing over the control to Iraqis by this November.

The center of this push would be Baghdad, where much of the insurgency problem has been located. However, 4,000 of the troops would be sent to the province of Anbar, which is at the center of the Sunni insurgency.

Some of the troops, perhaps the first new ones sent over, might be an 82nd Airborne Division brigade which is presently stationed in Kuwait.

On Wednesday night, President Bush will share his plan in a nationally-televised speech. Those who support the war believe that more troops must be sent in order to avoid this becoming a defeat for the U.S.A. This would not be an unprecedented move by the U.S., even in the Iraq war. In summer of 2006, the U.S. forces launched what was termed "Operation Together Forward" along with the help of the Iraqi troops, in a united attempt to overcome the violence in Baghdad. However, in spite of this increase of almost 10,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad, it seemed like the violence there only went downhill.

Some are persuaded of the success of this plan, while others (the general public for the most part, according to polls) are feeling less convinced.Recent polls, in fact, indicate that the general public is less than satisfied with the over 400 billion dollars that have been spent on the war, not to mention the lives of over 3,000 American troops that have been lost.

On Tuesday, voices of opposition to Bush's new plan could be heard throughout the U.S. government. Several Senators opposed the new plan, including Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy suggested a bill that would require congress to approve any increase in troops. Kennedy was not alone in this push for more checks to be placed before approval could be given to send troops over to Iraq.

Kennedy referred to the plan to deploy 20,000 additional troops as an "immense new mistake," affirming what much of the public and much of the government has been thinking and expressing through the media recently.

However, not everyone, no matter their political party, was enthusiastic about Kennedy's idea. Democratic congressional members were not mostly in favor of it. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) responded to this by saying that Congress can't "micromanage" the war in Iraq. Others seemed to share the sentiment.

A majority of Democrats, as well as some Republicans, are dubious about the plans, but meetings between the President and lawmakers have been taking place at the White House for much of the past week.
Some leaders, though, seem optimistic about the President's plan. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington) reported that the President has laid out his plans, but declined to comment further on what the plans were. At this point, Smith wasn't sure whether he supported the plan or not.