January 12, 2007 1:12PM 

# Next Up: Democrats’ Plan for Tax Augmentation 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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[The *Washington Post* reports](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011102080.html):

> \[Sen. Chuck\] Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, angrily condemned the “escalation” of the \[Iraq\] war. “To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives to be put in the middle of a civil war is … morally wrong. It’s tactically, strategically, militarily wrong.”
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> “I don’t see it, and the president doesn’t see it, as an escalation,” \[Secretary of State Condoleezza\] Rice replied.
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> Hagel looked stunned. “Putting 22,000 new troops, more troops in, is not an escalation?”
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> “Escalation is not just a matter of how many numbers you put in,” Rice ventured.
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> “Would you call it a decrease?” Hagel pressed.
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> “I would call it, Senator, an augmentation.”

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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