President Bush, in his speech on Wednesday night, called for a troop increase in Iraq of around 20,000 troops. This was to be expected as many major media outlets broke stories of this as early as Monday. The President also stated how he came to the conclusion that this change in strategy is the correct one. He met with over 150 law makers, advisors and military experts over the past weeks. He stated the consensus was that the troop increase was the correct path to follow. Harry Reid went on television on Wednesday afternoon and denounced the President for waiting until the day of his speech, which was already written, to meet with democratic leaders. Funny, the President has been meeting with democratic leaders since they won control of congress. I suppose Harry lost his invitation back in November. A typical democrat response is to cry because you were scheduled to talk to the President at the last minute. Could it be that maybe Harry Reid was given that appointment time because he knows nothing about this war and the proper way of handling it? I’m certain the President was not asking for real estate advice from the senator.

Dick Durbin, gave the democratic response to the speech. This response sounded like it was written right before the November election. He stated how in October the President said we were winning and now the President says we are losing. Actually, the President did not say we were losing in his speech. Durbin also stated that we need to turn control over to the Iraqi’s and start moving our soldiers out. The one thing that Durbin does not understand is that we’ve been trying that and it’s not working. If he bothered to notice that the vast majority of Iraqi security forces are still not ready to combat an insurgency on their own. Not because they are not a large enough army, but because they are an inexperienced army who needs our guidance and training. This was one of the positive ideas to come out of the ISG report. Our soliders are not going to be placed into some huge bloody battle, as Durbin said, but to work with Iraqi's more closely in securing the more dangerous areas. Will there be casualties? Probably, but not a blood bath as Durbin would have you believe.

Perhaps Mr. Durbin should ask the troops if they believe the job is done over there. I think he will find that almost all of them say no. Durbin and his fellow democrats are trying to win an argument just by taking an opposing side, but they never give us solid reasons why we should believe their side over that of the President.

In regards to the plan itself, it appears to be the right choice. Of course, democrats won't admit they think it's a good idea. They are too busy pointing out the President's faults. The main mistake President Bush made was not having enough troops over there to begin with. In fact, if you recall, right after we took Baghdad, many military experts believed that we needed to concentrate on that city with a larger number of troops than we had there at the time. They also suggested beefing up troop levels in Anbar province. Both of which, according to the new plan, will be done now. Now, the President must hope that this isn’t too late in the game. I believe it is not. You will never know unless you try. Simply turning around and running away will not fix the situation. Those who continue to suggest this strategy need to go to their local library and start reading books on how militaries in the past dealt with similar problems. It’s amazing that a lot of these congressional leaders can be so ignorant. It is clear, secure the capital city of the country and you have a center for which government can operate safely. In Iraq, Baghdad is where the heavy population is. More people make it more vulnerable and attractive to terrorists. By taking control of Baghdad and Anbar province, the US will have taken out 80% or more of the insurgency, this dramatically improving the Iraqi army’s chances of taking over their own affairs.

President Bush acknowledged that he made some mistakes. We all know that he did, but for him to announce it was commendable. He admitted mistakes were made, took responsibility and gave us a solution to the problem. Many democrats and even some republicans could learn something from this: time to admit that you make mistakes, and start suggesting a solution to the problem. After all, we know no one is perfect. Even though these people may think they are. I don’t think they received the memo.