Five Tests for Bush's New Strategy

US President George W Bush is soon to announce a new strategy for Iraq. There are five tests that will determine if it will succeed. None relate to the number of troops deployed.

They are:

1. Will the rules of engagement change to enable US soldiers' to go on the offense rather than just defend themselves?

2. Will Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki reluctantly accept it with rhetoric pushback and the Shi'ite thug Moqtada al-Sadr oppose it?

3. Will it be widened to such an extent that Iran and Syria feel directly threatened by it?

4. Will it cause the US public to now accept their country is now in the midst of a long regional war, perhaps indeed a global war?

5. Will there be criticism of it by the UN, Russia, China and western Europe?

If the answer is yes to all, then the strategy has the maximum chance of succeeding.