Let's try a Hail Mary pass

Now there's yet another "option" to support the failed Iraq war policy, the so-called "surge option." Well, it's a new name but it sounds kind of familiar for some reason.

Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.

The idea, dubbed the “surge option” by some officials, would involve increasing American forces by 20,000 troops or more for several months in the hope of improving security, especially in Baghdad. That would mark a sharp rise over the current baseline of 144,000 troops.

But some officials and senior military officers are arguing against the idea, saying that it could undercut a sense of urgency for Iraqi units to take on a greater role in fighting the insurgency and preventing sectarian attacks. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, told Congress last week that the military was stretched so thin that such an increase could not be sustained over the long term.

As each trial balloon comes crashing to the ground, real people get hurt in a real place called Iraq. It's a tragic spectacle. Come January, when a Democratic Congress takes charge, we can hope that a serious policy to end the war can be drafted. Right now, it's like watching the same frames of a horror movie repeatedly.

Tomorrow, someone in the Bush administration proposes we run the Wing-T...