They're now spending close to $400 billion for defense. If this Iraqi campaign is stretching our forces to the breaking point, then where is all that money going? We still have 110,000 troops in Germany. Bring them in if more force is required in Iraq. Don't go begging to the french. The President has no right to have our country humiliated like this.
Of course, we don't know what's in the speech, do we? He may announce that they found those 38,000 liters of anthrax for all I know. What I do know is that there is a perception that things are going wrong. If that perception is false then the administration has done a terrible PR job, and if it's right then we need better solutions than asking the french to save our bacon.
I'm really steamed. Ted Kennedy is running our domestic agenda and we need the french to save us in Iraq. At this rate they'll be swearing in Hillary Clinton before you can say "hail to the chief".
It's clear he is making some bad decisions. Whether or not it is from advice he is being given is not clear. He could be getting good advice and ignoring it or he could be getting bad advice and following it. In either case, he is the one making the decision about the advice he is being given.
France is happy to agree with us when we agree with them. That is our position now. What France wants, France gets. Without France, we don't get Turkey and India and other nations we want. The other options are for the US to absorb the casualties and the financial burden mostly alone (and I'm not at all sure that independent voters are willing to support that) or to begin pulling out and leave the country in the hands of the Iraqis-- for better or for worse. The most responsible and politically palatable option is the one Bush is following-- eating humble pie and getting the support of the French. Vive la France?!