I really did plan on taking more time off, but during some downtime I just can’t get away from my politics. And how could I not bristle at a story about Bush sending more troops to Iraq? And that’s not referring to the much-debated surge, even.

The president agreed to send 4,700 troops to Iraq in addition to the 21,500 he ordered to go in January, mainly to provide support for those combat forces and to handle more anticipated Iraqi prisoners. He also decided to send a 3,500-member brigade to Afghanistan to accelerate training of local forces, doubling his previous troop increase to fight a resurgent Taliban.

I shouldn’t need to point out that I support a surge to fight the Taliban. That’s obvious, and hopefully it’ll be enough to knock down al Qaeda as well. You know, the two groups we were supposed to have eliminated prior to even going into Iraq. But what really irks me here is that it seems like Bush regards politics in two spheres: the politics of words and the politics of actions.

The man fights for his surge vehemently or discusses the limitations and safeguards in the PATRIOT Act while otherwise doing things in complete contradiction to what he’s saying. It doesn’t even look like lying, because a lying president, fighting for rules he’s going to break or deals he won’t honor, wouldn’t be quite so adamant about them. After all, why does it matter if something passes in Congress if you’re not going to abide by its terms anyway? Moving on…

The president’s decision came as congressional Democrats are struggling to find a way to reverse direction in Iraq. Bush aides said this week that the president would veto a House Democratic spending plan that would require him to certify that the Iraqi government has met certain benchmarks by certain dates to keep U.S. forces in the country. The plan would require, under any circumstance, that troop withdrawals begin March 1, 2008, and that remaining troops be out of combat roles by Aug. 31, 2008.

Within one year troops must start to withdraw. Not be withdrawn, simply to start. And Bush can’t agree to it. Apparently he’s anticipating a war that is in excess of five years, potentially in excess of six.

Someday I’d love for all of the inside men to spill the beans and tell the world what the hell was really going on during Bush’s presidency. I’m sure it’d be fascinating.