Seventeen and a half thousand troops are due to be stationed in Baghdad, to face the army of Moktada al Sadr there – an army many times more popular and welcome than the Americans.

The other four thousand service personnel will find themselves in Anbar, facing Sunni militia with more battleground experience and local knowledge than any of the newcomers.

And, unfortunately, because of the American use of heavy and less-than-discriminate bombardment, the group with the highest number of casualties will, of course, be the local population.

There will be no peace in Iraq because of those 21,000 additional soldiers. And neither will there be stability. What there will be, though, is an increased resistance to the American presence in Iraq – and an increased acceptance of Iranian influences (and let's leave out the oil side of things here – there just isn't enough time, or room).

At the time of writing (January 15th, 2007) the Bush Administration has only two years and four days left to run. And during the next 734 days and nights, those 21,000 troops won't be winning Bush's war in Iraq …

… they'll be keeping him from losing it outright - until the next president takes his place in the White House and wonders what the hell to do about it all.