Bush wants to increase troop levels in Iraq?

The Guardian is reporting that George W. Bush wants to send more troops to Iraq, in a move the British newspaper describes as "a last big push." There's a summary at the end of the Guardian article that lists the supposed "four point strategy" being considered by the Iraq Study Group:

Four-point strategy

• Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq
• Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
• Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others
• Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces

If The Guardian report is accurate, then the "new" policy won't be so much new as a re-working of the already failed policy.

They can work this around the margins all they want, but it's not going to change the fundamental dynamics of the situation in Iraq. While politicians jockey for position, our troops and ordinary Iraqis pay the price.

The Iraq Study Group may turn out to be nothing more than political cover. How one "revives the reconciliation process" between factions that completely hate each other is beyond me. Someday maybe. In the next year? Right.

I suppose the Saudis and the Kuwaitis might be prevailed upon to lend some diplomatic credence to the effort, but let's not forget that Saudi Arabia has its own internal issues. And it has its own external agenda.

As for "Iraqi security forces," that has become pretty much a joke. Half the time it seems like those forces are active participants in the carnage.

Democrats need to be prepared to stand up to the Bush administration and act decisively to end the fiasco in Iraq.