Technician: Based on the expectations that people had that President Bush would raise the troop level, what is your general take on the speech?

Boettcher: There was nothing surprising in the speech because most of it was leaked ahead of time — 21,000 new troops to Baghdad and another 4,000 to Anbar province. I don’t think it’s what the public wants, or about 60 percent or so of the public. But there were no real surprises, and to my mind there were no significant changes at the strategy level, there were more minor revisions to tactics.

Technician: North Carolina is the most military-friendly state in the country. How will this increase affect the state’s citizens?

Boettcher: I think Marines in North Carolina will be most affected by this. When he discussed sending 4,000 more troops to Anbar province, those were Marines with a number of units coming out of North Carolina. Members of the 82nd [from Fort Bragg], they’ll be one of the first elements to go into Baghdad with this new surge.

Technician: Does this increase have any affect on NCSU students in the military or in ROTC?

Boettcher: I think those who are anticipating entering active duty in a year or two or those that are out for educational reasons that go back in will be affected by this. We’re going to see longer tours for the active duty members. If you’re in the Reserves or National Guard, it’s more likely you’ll see active duty in the near future. If you’ve already been to Iraq, there’s a greater chance you’ll be sent back to Iraq. So I think it could have a significant impact on those students.

Technician: What was missing from the speech?

Boettcher: What I saw was missing was a major change in outlook or approach to the war. This was basically a continued focus that Iraq is part of the War on Terror, that we need to fight them there instead of fighting them here. The president stuck to what is essentially known as his “clear, mold and build” strategy — that American troops would go in and clear out areas that Iraqi troops would then hold them, and these reconstruction teams would go in and build up the infrastructure. His basic tone of the speech was we tried this, it didn’t work. So now we’re going to send more troops and try to do it better. But that’s not necessarily going to produce success.

Technician: Why make this speech just before the State of the Union address?

Boettcher: I think that the president would like to avoid the last two years of this presidency to be entirely consumed by Iraq policy. The president didn’t do this speech because he wanted to, he did it because he had to. This was not something the White House would really enjoy doing — getting up there, admitting responsibility for failure and talking about changes. So their goal was to take their lumps, get it over with and then move on to at least some semblance of a domestic agenda that is primarily what the Democrats want to push through. So there will be some efforts to move forward at least some of the president’s legislative items.