Phillip Carter on Bush's new plan

A link to Carter's bio is in A plug for a good military blog--Intel Dump.

Today Carter posted his thoughts on Bush's speech. After saying that he thought Bush did a good job with the speech, he cogently expressed his concerns with the plan presented in the speech:

However, winning a war is easier said than done. As I shared with CBS News last night, I'm skeptical that this surge will work. It seems like too little, too late, and too focused on Baghdad to make a difference. We also seem to assume away the hardest problems, like the ability of the Maliki government to rein in sectarian violence, and the ability of the Iraqi security forces to function effectively. Many serious questions remain for me. And so I still see this plan as a gamble -- not a risk -- and I'm wary of gambling with our soldiers' lives when the odds are so long.

Carter gave further details in his appearance on CBS News, and I highly recommend watching that video.

At the risk of violating my promise to save my analysis for future posts, I will say here that Carter's post succinctly identifies the major problems with Bush's new plan.