“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but this is the fight we’re in.”

Nothing else in President Bush’s State of the Union Address sums up the war in Iraq better. Three years after Bush announced “Mission Accomplished” on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, we are still embroiled in a war that has lost its direction.

This war has put an incredible stress on our military force.

In response, Bush said he wants to increase the size of our active Army and Marine corps by 92,000 in the next five years. That’s more than a 15 percent increase in our overall military size. Bush has created his plan as if he has a blank check, but funds and lives will be overdrawn.

The military is already having problems retaining the quality of new service members as well as meeting monthly quotas. Bush is asking for a way to hire civilians with critical skills. Without a draft, it is doubtful many people with “critical skills” would want to leave higher-paying jobs to serve in a dangerous, conflict-ridden place like Iraq.

Bush presented a progress report for the war on terrorism and the spread of democracy. From the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon to the emergence of fledgling democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, progress was being made. That was 2005. For 2006, Bush explained how all that progress made was lost. Hezbollah terrorists supported by Syria and Iran threaten Lebanon. A resurgence of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters threatens Afghanistan. Iraq faces al-Qaida terrorists, insurgents from Syria and Iran and sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

Building and sustaining a larger active military force is not a viable solution to these threats of terrorism. All it will do is cost more lives and money.

Bush’s plan to prevent this scenario is to add 21,500 additional soldiers to Baghdad and Anbar province.

There are currently about 140,000 active duty members of the armed forces serving in Iraq. That’s almost a 7 percent increase. From where is he expecting these soldiers to come from?