After months of waiting and speaking with advisors and reading the Iraq Study Group report, Bush announced that the new Iraq plan was to send more troops. This goes completely against what the Iraq Study Group recommended.In his speech on Jan. 10th Bush decides to credit the Iraq Study Group report anyway.

The Iraq Study Group report was a bipartisan report commissioned by Congress. It can be accessed at the United States Institute of Peace website at usip.org.

Bush’s new escalation plan is intended to create a ‘surge’ to overpower the insurgency, defeating it quickly to allow the United States to remove its troops. This policy and Bush’s speech ignores almost all of the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations.

The report said that escalation would be ineffective, costly, and that we don’t have enough troops. Troops are already being moved to Iraq from Afghanistan, just as conditions there worsen.

The Iraq Study group made this determination based on the recommendations of current generals. One of the current generals anonymously quoted in the report stated that “all the troops in the world will not provide security”

Another general believed that a troop increase would only work in a small area. Thus, this escalation is only going to be occurring in Baghdad and the Anbar province. The rest of Iraq will be ‘staying the course’.

Only one recommendation is being followed; imbedding troops with the Iraqi Army and Police to provide training and oversight. The main recommendations were rejected.

The plan suggested building a large Middle Eastern coalition that was part of a new diplomatic initiative. Issues in one part of the Middle East profoundly affect other parts, and cannot be solved in isolation. While Iran currently benefits from Iraq’s conditions, it would not do so if the Iraqi war spread across the region.

Instead of bringing Iran and Syria in to help shape the new Middle East, the President instead blames them for many of the problems in Iraq. He also sends a new aircraft carrier to the region.

Many of the factions, including those contributing to the Shi’ite majority government have been receiving aide, both weapons and people from outside interests and governments in the region. Part of the new plan was to intercept those shipments. With troops only increased in Anbar and Baghdad, it was left unexplained how this will be happen.

Bush’s new plan isn’t a new plan. Bush’s plan is more of the same that has already been proven not to work. The Iraq Study Group report wasn’t used to inform or influence policy, but instead was made a propaganda point in a speech.

This Surge isn’t a strategy; it is Stay the Course’s new name.