Huckabee: Escalate the Escalation?

It seems that Governor Mike Huckabee would consider sending more troops to Iraq (if he were president):

This morning on NBC’s Today Show, host Matt Lauer asked Huckabee, if Bush delivers a more pessimistic assessment of the surge this week, “would you feel we owe it to the 150,000 or so Americans serving in Iraq to start pulling them out sooner than later?”

“We have to make a decision — do we either pull them out or do we put whatever is necessary to make sure we don’t leave it in a bigger mess than we started with,” Huckabee answered. “More troops?” Lauer asked. “It’s possible,” said Huckabee.

You can watch the video at Think Progress.

Now, I greatly respect Governor Huckabee – I think he is a man of fine character, and he has some good ideas on quite some issues, but Iraq is not one of them – seemingly. Everybody who studied (the mess in) Iraq for a while knows that:
- more troops will (most likely) not do the trick
- the military is already stretched to the breaking point

The Governor is an intelligent man, he knows that it is simply impossible to send (many) more troops. I cannot see this any different than as pandering. He is trying to appeal to the conservative base – to the hardliners. The sad reality is, however, that quite some Republicans have already jumped ship, and more are expected to follow.

As long as Republican candidates consider it to be necessary to talk tough about Iraq, the Republicans will stand no chance of winning in 08. There are – in my opinion – two types of candidates who are able to win in 08:
- “withdraw ASAP all forces”
- “keep some forces to protect American interests in the region / country, realistic approach”