Great Idea, Bush!...NOT

On January 11th, 2007, President Bush's decision of sending more than 20,000 troops to Iraq was greatly opposed by Democrats and even some Republicans. The Democrats say they will not immediately try to stop Bush from fulfilling his strategy. However, they will curb the management when Congress considers a war spending measure later on. It is said that the troops will be sent in order to restrain the violence. A Republican Senator from Nebraska named Chuck Hagel said the president’s plan was a “dangerous foreign policy blunder,” while a Democrat Senator from Wisconsin named Russell D. Feingold dubbed it to be possibly “the greatest foreign policy mistake in the history of our nation.” Many members of Congress are trying to find different excuses to why he should not do it rather than just telling him not to. The period of time in which the 20,000 troops will travel to Iraq has been spread over several months in hopes that the president would re-evaluate his increase if the Iraqi government did not supply security forces. With Bush’s action, the active duty Army manpower over the next five years would boost to 547,00, which is a rise of 39,000 over the present stage. The Marine Corps would escalate to 202,000, making this an adition of 23,000. Congress still needs to grant the growth. Bush and his top cabinet have been touring in hopes of obtaining support for his action. Needless to say, as much as he travels around saying, "Howdy y'all!" it is not working.

Another time in history where we saw opposition to a choice made by a President was when President Eisenhower decided to become involved with the Vietnam War. At first, it was mostly college students who completely disagreed. However, this feeling of contradiction quickly spread. Two even lit themselves on fire to prove their point! Yet, it was unsuccessful and our troops stayed there until the end. The President believed that once the South fell, so would the other countries. Now, with an elongation of the war and with more troops, violence will be sure to end as well as the war itself.