The Washington Post reports:

[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.”

“I don’t see it, and the president doesn’t see it, as an escalation,” [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice replied.

Hagel looked stunned. “Putting 22,000 new troops, more troops in, is not an escalation?”

“Escalation is not just a matter of how many numbers you put in,” Rice ventured.

“Would you call it a decrease?” Hagel pressed.

“I would call it, Senator, an augmentation.”