Welcome back from the Holidays. As expected, Bush wants to unleash hell in Iraq:

US President George W Bush intends to reveal a new Iraq strategy within days, the BBC has learnt.
The speech will reveal a plan to send more US troops to Iraq to focus on ways of bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces.

The move comes with figures from Iraqi ministries suggesting that deaths among civilians are at record highs.

The US president arrived back in Washington on Monday after a week-long holiday at his ranch in Texas.

The BBC was told by a senior administration source that the speech setting out changes in Mr Bush’s Iraq policy is likely to come in the middle of next week.

Its central theme will be sacrifice.

Sacrifice? Sacrifice? This is just the latest example of the sacrifice our brave soldiers are making in Iraq:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Pentagon announced the death of a Texas soldier on Sunday, raising the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000 since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

Bush will evidently call for even greater sacrifice from our soldiers. For greater sacrifice from their families. But what will Bush sacrifice? The arrogance of Bush, to presume that he can talk about sacrifice. A man who used his father’s connections to make sure he wouldn’t have to fight in Vietnam. A man whose advice to the American people after 9/11 was to buy more things. Bush does not know the meaning of the word “sacrifice.” Never in our history have we seen a more selfish, narcissistic President. Despite the lack of support from the troops, Bush will insist on a policy that puts more of our troops in danger.

There’s something much worse than being accused of “flip-flopping”: refusing to flip when it’s obvious that your course of action is a flop.

I say this to President Bush as someone who learned the hard way how embracing the world’s complexity can be twisted into a crude political shorthand. Barbed words can make for great politics. But with U.S. troops in Iraq in the middle of an escalating civil war, this is no time for politics. Refusing to change course for fear of the political fallout is not only dangerous — it is immoral.

I’d rather explain a change of position any day than look a parent in the eye and tell them that their son or daughter had to die so that a broken policy could live. - Sen. John Kerry.

[UPDATE (1/3/07 12:01 AM CST)]: Keith Olbermann has a Special Comment on “Sacrifice” from tonight’s show. Video at Crooks and Liars.