Voice of Minnesota: Tom Maertens, Former White House Counterterrorism Advisor

As a follow-up to President Bush’s speech on a troop increase in Iraq, we asked Tom Maertens, former National Security Council Director for Nonproliferation at the White House and Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Dept. of State., for his reaction. Maertens is now retired in Minnesota.

By escalating the war, Bush has rejected the idea of seeking a graceful exit and signalled that, instead, he likely wants to run out the clock on Iraq, and pass the whole mess to his successor. That will likely be followed by a propaganda campaign to blame the loss of Iraq on Bush’s successor, the one who will have no alternative but to cut our losses and withdraw US troops.

more insideThis is not a change in strategy, as Bush contends. It is simply increasing the ante