"You watch too many movies. If you want a happy ending, you should go see a Hollywood movie."

GFR has a clever post about George Bush’s one contribution to human discouse, the “fantasy tense.” I think that Ken Pollack should be speaking in this tense full-time.

…see also Fred Kaplan on the “surge” folly. This point deserves particular emphasis:

Kagan writes, “The President must call for young Americans to volunteer to defend the nation in a time of crisis.” Given the unpopularity of the president, and of this war, this seems unlikely. After the Sept. 11 attacks, when Bush was at peak popularity, and when the country was experiencing a surge of patriotism, Congress passed a bill expanding the size of the Army by 30,000 troops. Five years later, the Army has actually expanded by just 23,000 troops. It’s still 7,000 troops short of that target. How does Kagan expect to attract 30,000 more in just one year, much less to do so two years in a row?

This would seem to be the application of the Green Lantern Theory of Foreign Relations to another field. Where are the (arbitrary, ever-shifting number) of troops needed for Kagan’s plan coming from? Why, George Bush will just will them into existence by the force of his powerful rhetoric! Civil war is over…if you want it!