I was hoping to go for something not-Bush and not-Iraq. Then I found out about Bush’s brilliant new strategy. See, he’s been trying to get support for his troop-increase plan, but has found that it butts heads with his previous claim that he listens to General Casey due to one little wrinkle: Casey supports troop reductions. Bush’s brilliant solution? Get a new general. A special appearance by Captain Irony along the way.

Senior administration officials said that the choice of General Petraeus was part of a broader effort to change almost all of the top American officials in Iraq as Mr. Bush changes his strategy there.

“The idea is to put the whole new team in at roughly the same time, and send some clear messages that we are trying a new approach,” a senior administration official said Thursday.

Ah yes, a new approach. Or, more specifically, a whole new bunch of people who’ll stop trying to get Bush to try a new approach. Once again, rather than actually fixing the problem or doing what everyone’s telling him to do, ol’ Dubya seeks out people who’ll tell him what he already wanted to do is right.

He will replace General Casey, whose plan for troop reductions in Iraq faltered last year in the face of escalating sectarian strife and who initially expressed public wariness about any short-term increase in troops in Iraq, a move that is now a leading option under consideration by the White House.

Exactly. When you go against what Bush wants to hear, they push you out (Casey was going to leave anyway, but not until the middle of the year). When you do what you’re told and don’t ask questions, you get a medal even when it all bursts into flames.

Bush wants troops in Iraq always and forever. It’s nearly four years after the invasion, nearly four years after “major combat operations ended”, and we’re looking at troop increases. If this war had been managed well and ended cleanly, even us opponents wouldn’t have been able to say much. This is just absurd.