March 14, 2008

Update on The Surge

From the Washington Post:

Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.

Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that "no one" in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in the provision of basic public services.

As background:
Petraeus came back to Iraq a year ago to implement a counterinsurgency strategy, backed up by a temporary increase of about 30,000 U.S. troops, intended to reduce violence so Iraqi leaders could pass laws and take other measures to ease the sectarian and political differences that threaten to break the country apart.
So while the Surge HAS reduced the violence, the reason the Surge was instituted has, so far, been a faulure.
Petraeus credited both the mainly Sunni neighborhood patrols known as the Awakening and a cease-fire called by Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr with helping to bring down violence. The Awakening fighters include former insurgents who say they have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq, a largely homegrown Sunni group that Petraeus said is in communication with al-Qaeda leaders abroad. The United States is now paying 88,000 members of the Awakening $300 a month to take part in the neighborhood patrols.
Ah, the "Awakening." I remember that. The quotation is from Rolling Stone Magazine:
Now, in the midst of the surge, the Bush administration has done an about-face. Having lost the civil war, many Sunnis were suddenly desperate to switch sides — and Gen. David Petraeus was eager to oblige. The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq — it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the very Sunni militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces. To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq's central government. The Americans call the units by a variety of euphemisms: Iraqi Security Volunteers (ISVs), neighborhood watch groups, Concerned Local Citizens, Critical Infrastructure Security. The militias prefer a simpler and more dramatic name: They call themselves Sahwa, or "the Awakening."
But, of course, pointing out the failure of The Surge to achieve its political end is unfair because life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq was very very bad.

18 comments:

  1. Shocked! I am SHOCKED to learn that there is deception going on in this administration!

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  2. And the war is not only keeping us safe, but it's making other things on the home front so much better!!

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  3. John K. says: Yah nothing like winning a war to upset the liberals. Now I thought shitrock said he was not going post again until Nov. I am shocked he is lying. LOL Shocked that a lefty would lie. LMAO

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  4. John K. says: My dinky never lies! Look how beautiful it is! Lookie! Lookie!

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  5. Now that I'm a "liar," I guess John K likes me better.

    These Wingnuts seem to pick up tips from each other. C.H. has picked up John's mocking style and John has appropriated Mein Heir's penchant for calling everyone a liar.

    Hey, Anon, that pee-pee stuff is getting a little stale.

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  6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk

    good video

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  7. I disagree, anon. The pee-pee stuff is great. Keep it coming.

    "Winning a war"? Please explain how? I know you won't, but it's Friday, so WTF.

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  8. The pee-pee stuff is great.

    That's because you're a liberal lefty kook. A pervert. Sex-and-potty obsessed.

    You probably think queers are human, too. And maybe even women.

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  9. You might as well call me Beavis. Can't say doo-doo without getting a chuckle out of me!

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  10. The Iraqi Government did achieve some progress, not much, but some. I thought maybe we were finally getting some where.

    Guess what happened to that progress? The Iraqi Supreme Court overturned ALL OF IT saying that it was against the Iraqi Constitution (on very weak grounds). It seems that the Court and the U.S. occupation forces both thought the "progress" would benefit Moqtadi Al Sadri (spelling) too much so it needed to go. Back to square one and we now have 3,978 of our fighting men and women dead. -- Kim

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Meanwhile, maybe we should do an update on how the deranged obsession over all things negative in Iraq has helped the terrorists.

    ...and for all this talk about how no progress has been made, I think you should check this out. It's about the DRAMATIC turnaround of events in Iraq's western Anbar province and how local authorities have managed to take almost full control. That sounds like progress to me, amazing progress in fact.

    But just a little over a year ago we were hearing "reports" in the media about how the situation in Anbar was hopeless, that it was a lost cause. Here, look at this. Pretty shameful and pathetic, isn't it? And now, the public is being hit with relentless "reports" about how the awakening councils will fail and how everything isn't as hopeful as it sounds, in a desperate attempt to revive the old days of "Bush lied people died so get the hell out".

    Sure enough, something tells me that NBC nightly news, MSNBC, and the creatures who roam about the comments pages here on this blog will put together some kind of hit-piece in the coming days as the five-year annivesay of the war nears. AQI, the JAM, and the other terrorists will also continue trying to disrupt the progress, and unfortunately, the so-called "antiwar" movement will be determined to get as much of it on the TV as possible. But the facts don't lie. Obviously, the Iraqi government has had problems, but the people of Iraq are taking responsibility for their own future and are stabilizing their nation themselves.

    By the way, I was reading that Rolling Stone article you guys linked to about how the "Sunnis had lost the civil war". Now it seems the only civil war going on is in the democratic party and the American left.

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  14. CH, we thought you were about 14, but we apparently were wrong. You must be rougly 65. You must be one of the people who kept telling us that the Vietnam war protesters were helping the Viet Cong. It's an old, sad song.

    But Nixon, Cheney's political father, wasn't quite as smart. He should have paid off the Viet Cong to turn their weapons around the way Bush has done. Now the guys who were killing Americans get to kill their own relatives! Crazy clever these Neocons.

    Meanwhile the Iraqi government (that was supposed to get itself organized while Americans died for them in 2007) is still sitting back, laughing at you suckers, and wondering how long they can milk the American tit and collect their graft while soldiers spend 15 months at a time away from their families, or in almost 4000 cases the rest of their lives.

    If you just keep up your support of the troops, there won't be enough left for McCain to use to kill the immigrants coming over the Mexican border.

    Your description of how the right-wing corporate media are reporting this war is evidence of your complete cluelessness. They keep ignoring the casualties, the corruption, and the lies. And all your insults and snide remarks won't change this situation for 100 years.

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  15. John K says: Yah, nothing winning a war to upset left wing kooks. But you lefties are not opposed to the war in Iraq. You just don't like a Republican getting the credit for winning it. Now if Obama or Clinton is President, you folks will be all for the war. How do I know? Because you haven't shut off funding or passed a law demanding troops withdrawals. Do I know left wing kooks or what?

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  16. John K. says: Look at me! You have to look at me! I have the prettiest dickie in the world! Lookie!

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  17. c.h. said no way John K. my pee pee is nicer way way nicer look at it my pee pee is number 1. My pee pee's nicer nah nah nah nah nah nah.

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  18. John K. says: No! Mine prettier! Mine Prettier! I'll cry if you don't say mine prettier!

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