Why 5?

The ongoing Senate debate on the troop surge in Iraq has become a little boring to me because I had concluded that it was going to happen, regardless of the rhetoric opposing it. President Bush has decided to do it and because Congress is not seriously considering withholding money, they have no power to stop it.

That being the case, I have tried to move my focus to discussions on how to manage the larger strategic issues in Iraq (see my post on Lugar).

But comments made today by General Casey during his Senate confirmation hearing (to be Army Chief of Staff) brought me right back to the surge issue. Apparently, Casey, the top commander in Iraq prior to General Petraeus's promotion, told the President that 2 additional brigades would be sufficient to address the violence in Baghdad. President Bush instead sent 5 brigades.

Of course, this is the President's prerogative as Commander and Chief. But I fail to understand why he would overrule the man he considers the military's top expert in the region. After all, his confidence in Casey must be extremely high if he is promoting him to Army Chief of Staff.

I am not qualified to speculate too much on military tactics, so I will not. But I thought people should be aware of this disagreement.