Congressman Ron Kind sees little to be optimistic about for the new year in Iraq. President Bush is scheduled to meet with his national security team at his Texas ranch this week. But, Wisconsin Democrat Kind had little good to say about an Oval Office meeting with the president earlier this month. "I truly believe he thinks he's Winston Churchill (in) 1930, sounding the alarm that no else seems to be heeding," said Kind of that meeting. "The problem with that though, is Churchill was out of power, whereas President Bush is in power now, and capable of a lot of damage with the decisions he's gong to make.
American troops in Iraq, said Kind, are being asked to babysit a civil war, while military resources are stretched ever thinner. "All of us are holding our collective breath, hoping something bad doesn't break out in some other part of the world that would require a quick response from us," said Kind. "I don't think we've got the capability . . to respond to another crisis."
Kind said he hopes the president's idea of a new direction in Iraq is not to simply add another 30,000 to 40,000 troops to an ill-defined mission on the streets of Baghdad where, said Kind, "they're going to be sitting ducks."