A Change in Tactics, Not Strategy

John Hendren reports for ABC News: "U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., laid down the gauntlet today, making the first formal effort to block President Bush's expected plan for a surge of American troops in Iraq with a bill that would block funding for the additional soldiers and offering clear comparisons to Vietnam. . . .

"'In Vietnam, the White House grew increasingly obsessed with victory, and increasingly divorced from the will of the people and any rational policy. The Department of Defense kept assuring us that each new escalation in Vietnam would be the last. Instead, each one led only to the next. There was no military solution to that war,' Kennedy said. 'Echoes of that disaster are all around us today. Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam.'"

Reconstruction Redux

James Glanz writes in the New York Times: "A new effort to revitalize Iraqi factories that make vegetable oil, fertilizer, road signs and sulfuric acid -- among the world's most outdated and decrepit -- is expected to be at the center of the plan for the nation that President Bush will present Wednesday.

"But even before the measures are announced, Iraqi political and business leaders have been expressing skepticism that any effort to transform a system of state-owned enterprises that has fallen so far into dysfunction could become an engine for job creation in Iraq."

Glanz writes that the new plan is reminiscent of the earlier attempts at reconstruction "financed by $30 billion in American taxpayer money that had a marginal impact on the quality of life here, attracted ceaseless attacks on rebuilding projects and produced little but derision among Iraqis."

Among the only-in-Iraq obstacles: Official have not "solved what appears to be a logical flaw in the plan: how does the United States get credit for reconstruction projects when it must keep its participation secret to prevent attacks on those projects?"

What's New Here?

See Monday's column, Been There, Done That.

Or read Tom Raum, who writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush's new plan for Iraq sounds a lot like his old one. Send in more troops, set goals for the Iraqi government and assure Americans it's better to wage war there than here. . . .

"The plan the president will outline to the nation Wednesday night is the latest repackaging of a program that's been wrapped and rewrapped many times."

Notes Raum: "It's different this time, Bush supporters say of his new strategy -- always words to beware."

Bartlett Starts the Spinning

Indeed, "this is going to be different" was White House Counselor Dan Bartlett's mantra as he did a circuit of the morning shows today. For example, Bartlett insisted: "There have been some very frank conversations with the [Iraqi] government."

Here he is on CBS with Harry Smith: "The main purpose of this is to have a new strategy, that will yield different results. In order to get those results, we will need more U.S. troops. But I'll make something very clear here, Harry, that is only if the Iraqis supply more of their own troops."