Because ideas in Potomac and media circles travel in packs, we’re now being hounded by the word “escalate” as it applies to the Bush administration’s new policy in Iraq.

Said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.): “Based on the President’s speech, I cannot support his proposed escalation of the war in Iraq.”

Chimed in Sen. John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina: “Escalating the war is a huge mistake.”

MoveOn.Org, never to be outdone, is organizing protests to stop “the escalation.”

There’s only one problem with this chorus. It’s not Bush who is escalating the war. Consider for a moment: For months, years even, anti-war critics have been saying that the Bush administration’s policies have been increasing the insurgency, attracting terrorists to Iraq and all kinds of other bad stuff. In other words, for months, if not years, the insurgents have been escalating the war. The Bush administration is, in fact, responding to that escalation.

So, accusing President George W. Bush of escalating the war is like blaming George Washington for sending in reinforcements after the British sent in more battalions to fight at Yorktown.

Dennis Byrne is a Chicago writer. http://dennisbyrne.blogspot.com

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