Even more troops than we were told would be are now headed to Iraq as part of the Bush “surge.” I’m shocked that the administration that puts every dollar for the Iraq War through on an emergency basis wouldn’t tell us up front how many troops would be sent in the surge.

No I’m not.

The Bush Team is also master of the Friday afternoon bad news dump, the technique of holding unflattering stories until no one’s paying attention. And what better time to hide a whopper like this than the Friday leading into St. Patrick’s Day weekend?

An article by Reuters posted at 3:36 p.m. Eastern time Friday:

The Pentagon is sending an additional Army brigade of 2,600 troops to Iraq, raising the number of soldiers approved for President George W. Bush’s security plan to nearly 30,000, a senior defense official said on Friday…

Bush approved a plan in January to send 21,500 combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province to crack down on violence that has been characterized by U.S. intelligence officials as a civil war between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shi’ites.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told Congress this month that 4,000 to 7,000 additional support troops, including military police, would be needed to augment combat forces.

The numbers released on Friday show the Bush administration has already approved 7,200 support troops. The list includes the Army combat aviation brigade as well as 2,200 detention operations troops and another 2,400 combat and service support personnel.

Liars, liars, liars.