LOOK FOR AN ESCALATION IN IRAQ

Listening to the Sunday news shows, I'm terribly discouraged. It looks as if Bush is going to call for a last-ditch effort to win in Iraq, a two-year intiative that will include sending up to 30,000 more troops and throwing in all the "resources" "necessary to win."

Even David Brooks and Tom Friedman agreed that it's a hopeless situation. Russert played a couple of clips (Laura Bush and Don Rumsfeld) showcasing the tiresome theme, "The media doesn't show all the good things happening in Iraq." Brooks's reaction was, "Get over it!" He said the reporters in Iraq are not biased, that they're reporting the FACTS, and the Bush administration needs to face reality. Friedman said he had supported the war because he thought it was really important but would be really hard. He said that history would damn "these people" (Bushies) because they thought it was really important and would be really easy.

Brooks predicted that within the next year Republican Party leaders would be marching into the White House to tell W, "You're not destroying this party."