United States Government and Research Paper

Bush is soon going to declare a policy change in Iraq. His plan is to send more troops there as a last attempt to stabilize the heart of Iraq. The issue in this research paper will be: Should the US do one last "Big Push" in Iraq and send in an additional 20000 to 40000 troops in an attempt to win the war or should Bush make a fixed plan to slowly pull out the troops?

George w. Bush, president of the United States , is discussing a boost of military troops in Iraq with his advisers. He will most likely announce his plan within the first half of January.

The size of the eventual troop increase is remaining uncertain. It have been speculation in everything from a temporary '"surge" of 20000 troops to what is called the "big push plan "involving more than 13 additional brigades. There are about 3500 to 4000 troops in one brigade. The additional troops will be split between Bagdad and Anbar with the main focus on Bagdad and a smaller amount troops in Anbar. President Bush strongly believes that this will help the US win back control over bagdad and the Anbar province. To achieve this major increase increase in troops, it is written in the AEI-report that the tours of the troops already serving in Iraq now must be extended by several months and other troops must be sent back earlier then they were due to deploy. The AEI - or the American Enterprise Institute wrote a plan called "Choosing Victory". It put down details in how the war in Iraq could be won by sending additional troops in the combat zone. The AEI exists of 21 scholars and retired officers, and the type of plan they wrote seem to be the type of plan Bush favors.

Most people I have had the chance to talk to strongly oppose the plan to increase the military troops in Iraq. They think, as the majority of other Americans, that the war in Iraq has been going on for far too long and they are impatient for it to end and the American troops to withdrawal. My friend from Norway believes that "seeing that what bush said in the beginning of the Iraqi war, was that his goal was to make iraq a country of freedom and free of Saddam Husseins dictatorship. Why then send even more soldiers to kill more people, we know that it would be more killings from the American side. Saddam is captured and executed. It isn't Bush that has the governing control over iraq anymore, now it is the oil he is after. Even though he doesn't admits it we all know that it is the oil which is the main focus in this war in Bush's eyes. Iraq has a president which is governing the country that is something bush should respect because he is the one who put him there. Bush shouldn't take the risk and pick a even bigger fight with the islamicextremist seeing that he now has to consider the domestic problems back home. He has to think of the people in New Orleans which died and survived. He sent food packages to soldiers in Iraq but not starving survivors in New Orleans which is starving after hurricane Katrina. Bush has to win the people over in his own country and not the soldiers in Iraq."
In a poll presented by the Los Angeles Times/ Bloomberg only 12% f the citizens of the United states support sending a large amount of additional troops to Iraq. 52% of the Americans, according to the poll, will prefer to see a fixed timetable for withdrawal.

All parts agree on one thing . The strategy used in Iraq now are failing. You will find the disagreement in finding the out what should be done in the next step towards winning the war. As the situation is now the war is not going anywhere, to put it in member of the council on Foreign Relations Stephen Briddles words, " To squander lives in a long drown down simply to put a fig leaf over defeat is unsustainable.

President Bush have also earlier tried to send a big amount of troops in to Iraq at once. Last summer, 12000 additional troops was sent to Bagdad to quell violence. A few moths later the U.S military said that the operation had not met expectations. The months following this operations up until now anded up being one of the most violent periods in the central and western sections of Iraq since the U.S. led the invasion in 2003.

If Bush goes through with the Big Push plan and flood in with 40000 to 50000 more troops divided between Baghdad and the Anbar province the consequences will be that the troops stay in the combat zone will be extended and they will get fewer months off. An other consequence will be that the number of casualties will increase, both among the U.S. troops and among the Iraqis. The Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik have said that he will match an eventual U.S troop increase by sending about 12000 more Iraqi troops to Baghdad over the next month and a half. The plan is also called the double down - the gambling term for upping a bet. So it cal be like the opportunity of entering the lottery and if we loose the conditions in Iraq can become very unstable.

On the other hand, if Bush chooses to follow the Iraqi Study Groups advise and draw down all combat forces by the start of 2008 there is a possibility that a withdrawal would be a recipe for a massive ethnic cleansing. There could be a large scale civil war if the U.s withdrawal to fast.

When it first came out the Bush were developing a plan to send more troops to Iraq the republicans supported it and the democrats did not. But as we get closer to to the day Bush will reveal his plan of action to the public it seems like his plan already is running into trouble in Capitol Hill where the Republicans are joining the Democrats dislike for it. The Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from California and the also Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from Nevada expressed their oppose for the "Big Push" within the end of the first day after gaining control of Congress had passed. Instead they want Bush to start pulling out the troops within the next 6 months. The Republican Senator of Main, Susan Collins, also thinks thinks it would be a mistake to send more troops to Iraq. She believes a political, not military solution is needed.

There are also people like Republican Senator John MacCain that will only support the 'surge' if there is a significantly raise in troops . Senator Joseph Liekertman agrees with him and says that a minimum of 5 additional brigades should be sent to Baghdad and one more to Anbar province. James Dobbin former U.S. diplomat do not support the increase of U.S. troops. He is now an advisor for the Iraqi Study Group and support a withdrawal. Dobbin believes that Iraqis thinks U.S. forces put them in danger, rather than make their surroundings more secure. He says that " American troops is wildly unpopular in Iraq, and any effort to double our bet will lead to even more catastrophic results."

I find myself supporting a fixed timetable for withdrawal. I think that a big push will lead to more deaths and a more chaotic situation in Iraq as Mr. Dobbin says. While I was doing my reading on the subject it often came up that its not only us home in the united states that are impatient and want the war to end. The troops are also beginning to be tired and longer breaks and shorter time in the combat zone is suggested and recommended by experts. The big push plan will not give the troops time to rest instead the time for rest will be shorter and the time in Iraq will be shorter and more intense according to the AEI report which bush finds interesting. I say that Iraq should get time to get it together again and that the troops should start to slowly decrease in a speed that are healthy for the Iraq independent government.

1. -Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq blasted - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16496797/

2. New U.S. Iraq commander says may need three years - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16513181/

3. Bush May Back Sending More Troops to Iraq - http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/IraqCoverage/story?id=2731720

4. Pentagon's plan: More U.S. troops in Iraq - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military13dec13,0,4577494.story?coll=la-home-headlines

5. More troops for Iraq: Republicans join Democrats against Bush plan - http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C01%5C07%5Cstory_7-1-2007_pg7_2

6. Report: Bush's Iraq Plan Calls for More Troops, Jobs - http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-07-voa19.cfm

7. Bush Facing Opposition on Iraqi Troop Surge - http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-01-voa24.cfm

8. Why We Need More Troops in Iraq - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801055.html

9. Bush fleshes out Iraq strategy details - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070106/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

10. Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/16/wirq116.xml