Bait-and-Switch: Stealth escalation

U.S. expects 140,000 troops in Iraq after drawdown
By Andrew Gray, Ruters
25 Feb 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States expects to have about 140,000 troops in Iraq even after completing a planned drawdown of combat forces in July, the Pentagon said on Monday.
...
Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. military's Joint Staff, also said it was too soon to predict if troop numbers could go below the pre-surge level of 132,000 any time this year.

I thought "bait-and-switch" was illegal?

Is this what we were sold when W announced the "surge"?

"... I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them -- five brigades -- will be deployed to Baghdad.
...
I have given orders to increase American forces in Anbar Province by 4,000 troops."
[President's Address to the Nation, 10 Jan 2008]

Note: it's not clear if the 4000 troops committed to Anbar Province are part of the overall 20,000 or an additional 4000. Let's be generous & suppose the "surge" was to deploy an additional total of 24,000 troops.

As it turned out, closer to 30,000 additional troops were sent to Iraq for the "surge." This represents a 25% increase over the number proposed by W in January '07 (with the generous assumption that W in fact proposed 24,000, not 20,000!).

I note that a retailer advertising $24 and charging $30 would be indicted for fraud.

What else did W promise?

To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November.

I missed this announcement - did the Iraq govt take control of all provinces in November?

W proposes no end date, but gave every indication that the troop increase was to be temporary. After all, the Iraq govt was "to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November."

If we'll have 8,000 more troops at the end of the surge than when it started, this seems to be simply a stealth escalation of permanent troop deployments. - a "bait and switch" ploy. Retailers get prosecuted for this kind of misrepresentation - promising a rebate, then invoking various "fees" to reduce the size of the rebate.

For what it's worth, W also promised that

...Secretary Rice will soon appoint a reconstruction coordinator in Baghdad to ensure better results for economic assistance being spent in Iraq.

And, sure enough, the next day:

Rice announces new Iraq reconstruction coordinator
By Jenny Mandel; jmandel@govexec.com; January 11, 2007
State Department Secretary Condoleezza Rice on Thursday announced that Timothy Carney, a retired Foreign Service officer with extensive conflict experience, has been named to serve as the coordinator for Iraq reconstruction that President Bush called for in a speech Wednesday night.

Only thing is... I challenge anyone to find any news article referencing this guy since Feb 2007! (Nice job if you can get it!!)

From the inception of the the war, We, the people have never been told the truth regarding the cost of the war. Not once. Ever. In $$, in lives, in troops, in duration. Never.

Stop the madness!