Do you feel a draft?

President Bush said yesterday that the war in Iraq would require “difficult choices and additional sacrifices” in the coming year.

For everyone but him, of course.

Bush acknowledged that Iraqis had suffered “unspeakable sectarian violence” over the past year and admitted that it was “one aspect of this war that has not gone right.” One aspect of about 655,000.

But he still insists that “Victory in Iraq is achievable.”

How? By increasing the size of the Army and the Marines, and by sending more of them to die to Iraq. This, despite Bush's assertion that “The most painful aspect of my presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives.”

Right. The only pain those deaths have caused him is the political blowback.

It's too bad General Barry R. McCaffrey isn't president. He knows sending more troops to Iraq won't work. “Victory is not a good word to use. It implies that there is a military outcome in the short term that ends violence, and that’s not going to happen.”

But Bush is pretty sure he will win, and victory will assure him a place in history next to that other George W. “Look, everybody’s trying to write the history of this administration even before it’s over. I’m reading about George Washington still. My attitude is, if they’re still analyzing No. 1, 43 ought not to worry about it, and just do what he thinks is right, make the tough choices necessary.”

For everyone but him, of course.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/washington/21prexy.html