Victory Over Strain

The Weekly Standard: How Bush Decided on the Surge.

"If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly."

On the idiocy of the State Department:

Instead of a surge, the State Department favored a strategy of pulling troops out of Baghdad and allowing the Sunnis and Shia to finish their bloody struggle. When Bush heard about this idea, he rejected it out of hand. "I don't believe you can have political reconciliation if your capital city is burning," he said.

Not to mention the severe political consequences for President Bush had he agreed to such a hideous plan.