That surge

Well, the president is going to give his speech tonight. For those of you who can tolerate listening to him, more power to you. I'll get my information from the blogs because listening to George Bush does unsavory things to my blood pressure. I consider following the "live blogging" instead to be a self-care discipline! :-)

I want to call your attention to an article entitled "How the World Will See the Surge" by John Brown. Brown offers ten possible interpretations that the international community will have concerning the escalation Bush is proposing. Here are a few:

1. The surge is yet another expression of US unilateralism. The Americans do what they want when and how they want, no matter what non-Americans -- including Iraqis -- think. They are not bothering to get international support or approval for their surge. The rest of the world be damned.
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3. Elections in the U.S. don’t really matter. Americans in November didn’t vote for more troops in Baghdad, but their president is doing precisely that. The so-called opposition party in the U.S. is just part of an American imperialistic system that wants to dominate the rest of the planet, including its oil reserves, and that allows the White House carte blanche in carrying out aggressive military operations like the surge anywhere, any time.
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5. The American international media, both private and US government-supported, are not to be trusted. Their coverage of American military actions, with its traditional neglect of civilian victims, will try to show the surge in the best of lights. As for USG-funded outlets like Alhurra, they don’t offer the real news. For more accurate reports, better to turn to the BBC or Al Jazeera.

6. The surge will result in more US casualties, but that’s the Americans’ own fault. They are bringing disaster after disaster upon themselves because they refuse to understand or negotiate with the world outside their own borders. The Americans have no idea of the real situation in Iraq, where they are occupiers, not liberators.

Go on and click through to read the rest. I really with Bush would read this article. Not a snowball's chance, however.