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Iraq Troop Surge Underway and Working
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| Krypton |
Let's hope the good news lasts. We need a victory.
Source
| quote: | To surge or not to surge, that question is over. The surge is on, despite what some in Congress may want. And guess what? It seems to be working.
I know, I know. Don't speak too soon, John. OK, it may be working. It would be nice if it kept working, too.
What's the evidence? Well, a few writers have been talking about it in the newspapers. Even Ted Koppel spoke up over the weekend saying it didn't look good that some were trying to make hay against the surge and the current effort in Iraq without giving it a chance.
There are other indicators than just people who have been generous with their criticism in the past and are suspiciously quiet now. Muqtada al-Sadr cleared out of Iraq and is hiding in Iran because he didn't want to get shot. His Mahdi Army commanders are also suddenly invisible, having got out of dodge and have just gone to ground.
If our opponents in Iraq are afraid of a surge in troops and a change in the rules of engagement, shouldn't we be pleased? No doubt there are insurgents who still make their murderous trouble. The weekend death toll is testimony enough to that.
But Robert Kagan writing in The Washington Post talks about a couple of Iraqi bloggers he corresponds with regularly and they are starting to see results in their own Baghdad neighborhoods. The sectarian checkpoints disappear, the insurgents are less likely to brazenly assert authority over a neighborhood, people out and about. Evidence such as that suggests something of a change.
Far be it from me to speak too soon, however. I will hold back on my cheering for now, and quietly go about my business hoping the good news lasts.
Ultimately, the way out of Iraq for American troops is the Iraqi government and Iraqi troops succeed. We all hope for that. So we are buying them some time to organize themselves to stand up against troublemakers and that is a good thing for us to do.
I certainly hope there is nobody in this country hoping the surge fails. Even if you think it might fail — because so much has failed before — it would be taking domestic politics too far to actually hope for our side to be defeated. And I do realize there are a lot of people who hate Bush, but that would be taking the run of hating Bush too far, wouldn't it? |
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| MisterOpus1 |
Hmmm, it wasn't more than a week ago that a Bush administration official acknowledged that “right now there is no trend" that the surge is working:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...7030902017.html
Please ignore this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007...in2572760.shtml
Or this:
http://www.examiner.com/a-617867~Ba...government.html
Or the fact that the Pentagon for the first time calls some of the aspects of the war a "civil war":
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/a...0315/15iraq.htm
Or this:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO460349.htm
Or this:
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/ne...aq/16902733.htm
Or this slaughter:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12354742.htm
More here:
http://www.usatoday.com/printeditio...qnews07.art.htm
Or this:
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2007/03/12/top.htm
Or this:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO129439.htm
And that's just within the past week.
Nice surge. And thank goodness Bush is sending troops like these to fight his lovely little war of choice:
| quote: | As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.
http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/ |
You see, these times of "calm" were predicted well in advance. People knew, as our military knew that more troops in a particular area will only temporarily calm things down as the insurgents easily blend right back into the civilian backdrop. Or what's more, they simply hold their attacks on the outskirts and elsewhere, which is what we are clearly seeing as well:
| quote: | “Sectarian attacks in Baghdad are down at the moment, but the deaths of Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops have increased outside the capital. … If violence is down in Baghdad, analysts said, it is likely because the Shiite militias operating there are waiting out the buildup in U.S. troops, nearly all of whom are being deployed in the capital. At the same time, Sunni insurgents have escalated their operations elsewhere.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...7030902017.html |
But you see, we've seen these points of "calm" and "cautious optimism" in the past:
"A Relatively Promising Counterinsurgency War: Assessing Progress in Iraq" 10/29/03
http://www.brook.edu/views/testimon...on/20031029.htm
"Commander: Progress in Iraq in '06" 1/1/06
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13530355.htm
"Coalition Continues to Hammer al Qaeda in Iraq" 6/20/06
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/new...e.aspx?id=15992
"Relative Calm in Iraq" 8/22/06
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006...in1918857.shtml
"Operation Forward Together Expands into Northeast Baghdad" 8/27/06
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=590
"East Baghdad Commander 'Cautiously Optimistic'" 9/2/06
http://www.sofmag.com/news/permalin...3046840214.html
"Violence Down in Baghdad, US General Says" 9/8/06
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=748
Tony Snow w/ Miles O' Brien 11/2/06:
| quote: | "Here's the key, there are a lot of American forces that are doing some pretty amazing things in Iraq right now. One of the things they've been doing is training up Iraqi forces to assume responsibility. I noted yesterday a lot of people were holding up a chaos chart that was taken at the peak of violence last month in Iraq. Guess what's happened? Last week, violence throughout Iraq was down 23 percent. Deadly violence in Iraq was down 41 -- I mean, in Baghdad was down 41 percent. Nobody did the other story, which was needle would have jumped toward peace yesterday, didn't want to report that.
Don Rumsfeld's doing a good job because he has been leading an effort to try to retool the American military, to meet changing challenges in the world, during a time of war. And he's doing it with courage and foresight."
(on a side note, Rumsfeld "resigned" 6 days later)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRI.../02/ltm.01.html |
And I must say, I find it interesting how the Pentagon is finally coming up with a "Plan B" (which for the Administration is like Plan Q, or Plan R or somewhere down that line):
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...-home-headlines
John Gibson? Are you serious? John "The secularists are declaring war on Christmas" Gibson? Thanks for that "Fair and Balanced" report there, Krypton. |
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| M.Johan |
"yeah,civil war"
+1
not yet
:S
peace now
:S
not yet
:S
"WTF"
+1 |
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| Krypton |
| Shiite malitias are off the streets, but for how long? The killing rate has slowed considerably in Baghdad. We need to chase them to the outskirts, and get them in the desert. That doesn't mean we pull out and let all hell break lose. |
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| B018 |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
Shiite malitias are off the streets, but for how long? The killing rate has slowed considerably in Baghdad. |
And as I mentioned above, the violence has gone elsewhere, just as predicted.
Meanwhile, 7 more U.S. soldiers have been killed:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...EMPLATE=DEFAULT
I'm sure their wives and loved ones are really glad to hear the surge/escalation/scatter-the-insurgents-elsewhere-temporarily is working splendidly.
| quote: | | We need to chase them to the outskirts, and get them in the desert. That doesn't mean we pull out and let all hell break lose. |
How do you have any foretelling of hell breaking loose if we have a phased redeployment, attempt a more political solution versus a police-state military one, focus on al Qaeda and training Iraqi forces, all in accordance to the Bush-sponsored Iraqi Study Group versus the "secure and hold" surge plan?
Can you give me any instances to which this ing Administration has been right on anything about this war, enough to which I can hold faith on anything they say as well as any "dire" predictions you and they make about following common sense as depicted by others (i.e. Baker group)? |
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| Krypton |
A police state? How about a theocracy police state if we "redeploy" now? They'll devolve into a civil war.
I think we've misunderstood what phased withdrawal we're talking about. I'm referring to those who are demanding the US withdraw immediately. That shouldn't be done. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
A police state? How about a theocracy police state if we "redeploy" now? They'll devolve into a civil war. |
Considering the Pentagon is already calling parts of this war a "civil war", and considering most serious analysts know this already is a civil war, you seem to be having trouble understanding the fact that we're already at that point.
And a theocratic police state? You mean like Shiite militias in leagues with Iran? Sunnis insurgents in leagues with Saudi Arabia to which we are helping to fund?
Sir, we're already at a theocratic police state civil war. The temporary fart in the devolvement of that state is exactly that - temporary. We cannot sustain our position forever, nor will it help being caught in the middle forever as our troops continually get plucked off one by one helping the Shiite government form their fundamentalist state in leagues with Iran. You do realize that's exactly what we're fighting for right now, right?
| quote: | | I think we've misunderstood what phased withdrawal we're talking about. I'm referring to those who are demanding the US withdraw immediately. That shouldn't be done. |
I'm not aware of any serious Democrat calling for an all-out withdrawal without any phase-out redeployment factor that involves a number of other factors I mentioned above such as continuing to train the Iraqi troops to stand up for themselves, have special forces continue going after al Qaeda cells, etc. If there are any that you can cite, that's fine, but I would disagree as you would with such a stance of outright withdrawal with no earmarks or achievable goals being attained in the process. |
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