George Santayana said it best:  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Case in point:  George W. Bush, a "man" who is determined to emulate the "success" of a war from which he evaded any possibility of taking part in.

Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq

President George W Bush is poised to increase troop numbers in Iraq as part of a dramatic new strategy designed to regain control of Baghdad and suffocate the Sunni insurgency.

Sending more soldiers and marines to Iraq would infuriate Democrats and be a slap in the face to James Baker, the former US secretary of state who co-authored the independent Iraq Study Group report, which recommended a draw down of all combat forces by early 2008.

But an advisor involved in White House discussions said of Mr Bush: "This is the direction he's moving in. He understands we have to win and to do that requires more troops."

Mr Bush is debating with his aides and outside advisors how many extra troops there should be and for what period. His options range from a temporary "surge" of 20,000 troops to a "big push" involving more than 50,000.

A version of the "big push" plan – also known as the "double-down gamble" option – is supported by Senator John McCain, who is fast becoming the Republican establishment's choice for the 2008 presidential nomination.

So the idiot king and his syncophants now thinks that he is playing a high-stakes game of blackjack.  "Another 20,000?  Sure, I'll double down!"

And who do we have to thank for planting this brainstorm into the regretfully empty head of Dubya?

Henry Kissinger.

And the past comes full circle.  Welcome to the future.

You know those fishing shows on TV?  The ones where the dudes in the really expensive bass boats troll out onto a lake or river, sporting all of the most expensive gear imaginable, armed with the most expensive lures and rods?  They go out and catch these huge monsters, catfish and bass and trout, the size of which ordinary fishermen could only dream about.

Those shows always cracked me up, because these big-time fishermen would go and release the fish they just caught.  I mean, here the spent endless hours on a lake somewhere with millions of dollars worth of gear to find these fish, and they let the fish go.  Talk about a waste.

I bring that up because now it looks like Dubya has been applying the same lesson to people locked up in Gitmo.

AP: Some Gitmo detainees freed elsewhere

The Pentagon called them "among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth," sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba.

Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to other countries, many of them for "continued detention."

And then set free.

Whuh huh???

When the Pentagon announces a detainee has been moved from Guantanamo, it gives his nationality but not his name, making it difficult to track the roughly 360 men released since the detention center opened in January 2002. The Pentagon says detainees have been sent to 26 countries.

But through interviews with justice and police officials, detainees and their families, and using reports from human rights groups and local media, The Associated Press was able to track 245 of those formerly held at Guantanamo. The investigation, which spanned 17 countries, found:

• Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.
• Only a tiny fraction of transferred detainees have been put on trial. The AP identified 14 trials, in which eight men were acquitted and six are awaiting verdicts. Two of the cases involving acquittals — one in Kuwait, one in Spain — initially resulted in convictions that were overturned on appeal.
• The Afghan government has freed every one of the more than 83 Afghans sent home. Lawmaker Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, said many were innocent and wound up at Guantanamo because of tribal or personal rivalries.
• At least 67 of 70 repatriated Pakistanis are free after spending a year in Adiala Jail. A senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said investigators determined that most had been "sold" for bounties to U.S. forces by Afghan warlords who invented links between the men and al-Qaida. "We consider them innocent," said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
• All 29 detainees who were repatriated to Britain, Spain, Germany, Russia, Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Bahrain and the Maldives were freed, some within hours after being sent home for "continued detention."

Nice.  I'm sure that these former prisoners aren't bitter or anything after their ordeal, right?

Some former detainees say they never intended to harm the United States and are bitter.

"I can't wash the three long years of pain, trouble and humiliation from my memory," said Badarzaman Badar, an Afghan who was freed in Pakistan. "It is like a cancer in my mind that makes me disturbed every time I think of those terrible days."

Great.  In an effort to prove what a great sportsman he is, Dubya may have been creating more terrorists.

I sure wish life really was like a fishing show.  Then we could throw this president back.

Via Shakes Sis.

Dear CNN:

I'll make a deal with you:  you stop telling me when Dubya is thinking about doing something smart (as opposed to actually doing something intelligent), and I'll stop making fun of you to everyone I know for being the most gullible rubes on the planet.

Seriously, how many times has this yokel burned you guys with big "announcements" that only turn out to be rephrased ways of saying "stay the course"?  How many times have you given this fool air time for his huge speech events, only to find out that he is, in fact, saying the exact same thing over and over and bloody over again?

Get a clue, you idiots.

Regards,

Steven Perez