Harry. . .stop the buck here.

Harry Reid offered qualified support yesterday for a plan to increase U.S. troops in Iraq, saying it would be acceptable as part of a broader strategy to bring combat forces home by 2008, but only on a short-term basis.

Harry. . .No. I understand what you are trying to accomplish. I appreciate your attempt to reach out to these people. But Harry, you're wrong on this one. Please listen to these people:

"Any troop surge would be ineffective. U.S. forces are already overextended, and the American Army isn't large enough to secure Baghdad". - Colin Powell

"If we implement a short-term increase, won't our adversaries simply adjust their tactics, wait us out and wait until we reduce again? So I think you'd have to ask very serious questions about the utility of this." - Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.)

"I respect Harry Reid on this, but that's not where I am. There would be widespread opposition by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee if Bush proposed a troop increase." - Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MASS)

"Any proposal to send more troops should only follow a political solution that will end civil unrest. The president and others who support the surge have it exactly backwards". - Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)


"Increasing troops would run counter to recent recommendations by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which set a goal of withdrawing combat troops by early 2008 in support of more aggressive regional diplomacy." -Yahoo News

"Part of what has enabled this disastrous war from the beginning has been the willful delusion about who George Bush is and how he operates. "Harry Reid will go along with my plan if I tell him it's "temporary"? Fine, Harry, "the plan is temporary." - Arianna Huffington

Harry. . .do NOT play ball with this guy. In this high-level game of insane decisions and egotistical reactions, he will play you for all he can get. It's one of the very very few things he's actually good at. . .