Reaction from Butler County's two congressmen to President Bush's plan to deploy more troops to Iraq came swift and sure.

The bipartisan conclusion: a collective and resounding thumbs down.

Local political science professors, however, gave the speech better grades, yet underscored that attaining stability in Iraq, marked by sectarian strife for centuries, would not be easy.

"The president did not, as promised, offer a new strategy for success in Iraq,"said freshman U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4th, in response Wednesday to Bush's prime-time televised address to the nation.

"Instead, he offered more of the same — an escalation of the same failed policy."

But Democrats like Altmire weren't the only ones to turn a cold shoulder to the proposal; even U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-3rd, offered a chilly review.

"While I applaud the president's reassessment of U.S.-Iraq policy," he said, "I stated earlier (Wednesday) that I did not support an expansion in American troop strength on the ground. Nothing in his speech tonight has caused me to reconsider my position.

"The proposed surge in U.S. troops does not by itself present a clear and convincing plan to achieve U.S. goals in Iraq and, in my view, would only further complicate the current problems."

Speaking from the White House, Bush outlined his plan to add more than 20,000 troops to the 132,000 already in Iraq.

The plan is part of a new strategy in which U.S. troops will work side by side with their Iraqi counterparts in securing areas of Baghdad where violence has not waned.

Bush also stressed the importance of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to seek political reconciliation with the Sunni minority.

But the increasing unpopularity of the war makes Bush's plan a tough sell to Congress. For Altmire, it's no sale.

"(Wednesday night), I hoped to hear an explanation of why an escalation of the war in Iraq would be in our nation's best interest and how this strategy would be different from the failed Iraq policy of the past three years,"he said in a news release.

"This time, as in the past, President Bush has ignored the advice of his military advisers and the independent Iraq Study Group. He has again failed to provide the American people with a plan for success in Iraq and an honest assessment of the reality on the ground."

Mark Daniels, professor and chairman of political science at Slippery Rock University, found little new in Bush's speech, and predicted continued problems ahead.

"(Bush) has adjusted his course in Iraq but has not changed his approach to securing Iraq,"Daniels said in e-mail comments. "There were fatal mistakes in 2003 that still confront us: firing the entire Iraqi army, firing anyone who was a Baath party member; and not stopping the looting. We are still recovering from those mistakes.

"In my opinion, President Bush is doing too little too late to change the mistakes made by Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defense, in post-war Iraq."

The inability to secure Baghdad, according to George Brown, associate professor of political science at SRU, represents a failed Bush military policy, as well as a failure to achieve political conditions that could lead to peace in vast areas of Iraq.

"The solution is to seek and to promote political processes that allow trust to be built between and among the divided Iraqi communities," he said in e-mailed comments. "Sending in more troops to engage the Sunni insurgency or to attack Shiite militias is not going to solve the problem."

Grove City College political science professor Michael Coulter believed Bush in his speech possibly found favor among many Americans who are disappointed with the status quo, but aren't prepared to withdraw immediately.

"Many Americans have wanted to hear the president admit that he and his team have made mistakes, and that they have developed a new plan — a plan that involves a great Iraqi commitment,"Coulter said in e-mailed comments.

"The problem is that the president should have given this speech six months ago. It may be too late to change the situation in Iraq and change American opinion toward the war."