Can't he just....

call it what it is? It's an escalation. Just as in Vietnam when US popular for Johnson's course of action was low, even in 1967, even though the War went on and the US bombed Cambodia for nearly four years with no real strategic gain in Vietnam, even though Johnson reached a nadir in popularity with the disaster of the Tet Offensive, even though he was discouraged from seeking re-election, the US still acted as though it had a mandate to warmonger more.

Perhaps this is not happening to this degree in Iraq; Cambodia was destroyed as many had known it and the resulting political vacuum allowed for the accession of psychopath Pol Pot; that said, in both cases, the American people had made clear their feelings about the situations, and in both cases, Presidents had completely ignored the intensity of those feelings and carried on as though nothing had changed. Apparently, one can cordon oneself off in an incomparable manner, even though the job is perhaps that in which one is accountable to the most people (at least in the United States). And history seems to be repeating itself as again the Cooped-Up-One-In-Chief turns up his imperious nose at the American people and the world.