All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Iraq back together again...

Do these people ever talk to each other? The Joint Chiefs of Staff are recommending a change of course in Iraq.

The chiefs do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq, said sources familiar with their thinking, but see strengthening the Iraqi army as pivotal to achieving some degree of stability. They also are pressing for a much greater U.S. effort on economic reconstruction and political reconciliation.

The chiefs also want to see a new push on political and economic issues, especially employment programs, reconstruction and political reconciliation, to help quell the problems that have fueled both the Sunni insurgency and Shiite-Sunni sectarian strife, say defense officials and U.S. military officers in Iraq. A new jobs program is considered key to pulling young men from the burgeoning militias.

Cripes. I've been saying that for many months now. Meanwhile, The Pentagon is pushing for a risky gamble with our troops lives

[S]trong support has coalesced in the Pentagon behind a military plan to "double down" in the country with a substantial buildup in American troops, an increase in industrial aid and a major combat offensive against Muqtada Sadr, the radical Shiite leader impeding development of the Iraqi government.

"I think it is worth trying," a defense official said. "But you can't have the rhetoric without the resources. This is a double down" — the gambling term for upping a bet.

...Some military officers believe that Iraq has become a test of wills, and that the U.S. needs to show insurgents and sectarian militias that it is willing to stay and fight. "I've come to the realization we need to go in, in a big way," said an Army officer. "You have to have an increase in troops…. We have to convince the enemy we are serious and we are coming in harder."

However, what doubling down means in terms of troops is muddy. I've heard suggestions ranging from a ridiculous spit in the bucket 20,000 to 100,000 and no one seems to offer an explanation as to where these additional troops would come from.

It's so easy for these policy wonks at the Pentagon to make these recommendations from their cushy little offices. I might suggest that anyone who wants to double down be required to back that theory by putting their own boots on the ground in Iraq. That might bring a little realism into the debate.