How about a military opinion?

Former NATO commander Wesley Clark says that a 'surge' of troops would be 'too little, too late.'

The Pilgrim never supported the Iraq war. That said, once the decision was made, clearly the troop commitment was too small to have a reasonable chance at success. The experience in dealing with violence in the former Yugoslavia made that clear. Clark draws on that experience.

"We've never had enough troops in Iraq," Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces from 1997-2000, wrote in Britain's Independent on Sunday newspaper.

"In Kosovo, we had 40,000 troops for a population of two million. For Iraq, that ratio would call for at least 500,000 troops, so adding 20,000 now is too little, too late..."

Remember when the President said he was relying on his military experts? When he said that more troops would be provided if they were deemed necessary by the commanders? Well, that wasn't true, as those who did argue for more troops were pushed out.

Now, when his own commanders- those he and Rumsfeld had put in place because the accepted the previous (bad) logic of minmum troop commitment- say they don't believe more troops are necessary, the President appears poised to send them anyways.

GP