You know what "emboldens the enemy"?

Short-changing the troops that are involved in this so-called "surge" in Iraq by not giving them the appropriate counterinsurgency training:

Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases.
Some in Congress and others outside the Army are beginning to question the switch, which is not widely known. They wonder whether it means the Army is cutting corners in preparing soldiers for combat, since they are forgoing training in a desert setting that was designed specially to prepare them for the challenges of Iraq.

Army officials say the two brigades will be as ready as any others that deploy to Iraq, even though they will not have the benefit of training in counterinsurgency tactics at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., which has been outfitted to simulate conditions in Iraq for units that are heading there on year-long tours.

What this tells me is that either Army officials are lying, or NONE of the soldiers coming out of this training center have been appropriately trained.

This Administration gives lip service to "pertectin" the troops only when it is to its political advantage to do so. But in terms of actually protecting them by providing armor, adequate food, water that isn't polluted, medical care, and training, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the other neocon advocates of empire couldn't give a shit. They sleep the quiet, dreamless, guiltless sleep only the most evil of men know.