Looking back

"President Bush yesterday began promoting his plan to send more troops to Iraq, bringing more than 30 Republican senators to the White House as part of a major campaign to rally the American people behind another effort to stabilize the country.

Senators who met with Bush said the president made it clear that he is planning to add as many as 20,000 U.S. troops to help quell violence in Baghdad. They also said the president is arguing that his new plan has a better chance for success than past plans because of a greater willingness of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to commit Iraqi forces against all perpetrators of violence, including Shiite militias."

---January 9, 2007, Washington Post.

President Bush announced his "surge" policy in a national address the next night.

But elements of the 82nd Airborne had been deployed to Iraq the week before and had been given pre-deployment notices on Dec. 15.

And this what Baghdad looked like then:


I'm not sure how I would have felt about the surge had the President been straight forward with us. But as parents of soldiers, I think we deserve to know the truth.