Spin is powerful. Beware of spin and try to use it to your advantage when you can. Right now the spin on the war in Iraq is that, with the successes recently claimed by U.S. President George W. Bush and General David Petraeus, we will be able to bring home 30,000 troops to their families and loved ones waiting for them back here State-side in mid-2008. What none of the “news” sources seem to be talking about is that the troops surge that began earlier this year (I don’t remember when the surge began, but it was voted on in Feb ’07) deployed 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.

Let’s do some math: 30,000 – 21,500 = 8,500. Damn, I’m glad 8,500 troops who were not involved in the surge are coming home. I’m not going to go so far as to say they should all come home, though I am of the opinion that we (being a uni-lateral U.S.) should never have gone into Iraq. The math is easy – thinking critically about what’s actually happening in this country is hard.
The headlines I’ve been seeing suggest that these 30,000 troops are a significant reduction in forces over in Iraq. That’s spin people! It’s a significant reduction of POST-SURGE troops! Keep everything in context; remember this war for the future. I’m paraphrasing Bill Maher in saying that the stupid are hasty and over-confident where the intelligent are hesitant and self-doubting. Our president was hasty and over-confident going into Iraq in 2003. Do you think that means he is stupid? I do.

+ =