As always, Hubris, direct and to the point.
Apologists for this fraudulent meat grinder of a war tell me, "Well, Baghdad's safer," and I usually retort with the fact that the city's quite a bit calmer, now that the Shiites have either killed, barricaded or driven out their Sunni neighbors.
Sadr may have other priorities - I heard an item on NPR earlier this month that he's taking instruction at Najaf and a few other places with an eye toward becoming an Ayatollah (and possibly competing with the Grand Ayatollah Sistani).
well from the point of view of religious fundimentalists, both in iran and in america iraq is better off. soon it will be anotehr religious state, one less secular nation to deal with is allways good in their eyes.
Another thought just occured to me - our use of air strikes. Bombing the bejesus out of towns and villages may make great TV, but it's what the British did in Iraq in the 20s (and what Goering wanted to do after Germany had beaten the USSR) - use air power as long-range artillery.
Unfortunately dropping 40,000 pounds or so of explosives on a town just to kill a few dozen troublemakers just seems to piss the rest of the townies off. Can't imagine why.
This so-called "surge" is working like the aftermath of Katrina, just let it go and nature will find a way.
And Decider George bounces across the Mid East telling people the NIE on Iran isn't his "view" and "quite contrary" that US troop reductions in Iraq will be continued.
This administration has in just seven years destroyed 200 years of history.
Just walk past an elementary school and one can see future soldiers who will end up in Iraq.
Great site!
Keep on keepin' on!
THe American public seem to have wiped their collective memory clean of Iraq. its like a dirty family secret.
The surge is kind of working in the way that it gave cover to Iraqi's to finish the internal movement and murder of people.
Anyway quick look Hillary showed emotion, got to be good for a new shiney loud graphic on the 24 newzzzz channels.
Why do you think your having the longest most expensive presidential race in history, it sucks the air out of all the other shitty news (we should also thank Brittney & OJ for their contribution to the abject stupidity in news):
The economy
Katrina/ New Orleans
Iraq
Afganistan
I don't know if anyone else here caught it but 'the surge is working' was the premise behind one of the questions asked by the moderator at the ABC New Hampshire Democratic debate. All of the candidate weren't foolish enough this time to agree with that, but the corporate media framing of the situation has gone very profoundly back into default support of the Bush administration.
Hubris Sonic,
You are being far too generous when stating the situation in Iraq. The most comprehensive study done of casualties in Iraq concluded that there had been 600,000 "excess deaths" and that was done 2 years ago. A more recent study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine reported between 120-220 thousand but was far more problematic in its methodology which included extrapolating for areas that were two violent for them to visit(one of their employees was killed trying to conduct the study). The lower number however is what you are more likely to see in the corporate media cause it is lower.
Petraeus is one of the slimiest generals I have seen in awhile. I would compare him with MacArthur, since both of them were politically well-connected and enjoyed a reputation far outweighing their modest talents(though their talents for self-preservation are quite immense). They are both great parade ground generals. Petraeus has been good at figuring out a very short term solution to capping violence that will kick our asses in the long term. The Sunni Arabs WILL turn the guns he handed them on the government. Sadr WILL use his militia to rise up in Baghdad to get power from the government Bush just guaranteed power for life. The people of Fallujah WILL eventually need to have the use of vehicles again. And the US WILL have to end the occupation of Iraq and end the imperial mission there.
wengler: the updated Lancet study says over 1 million Iraqis have died
"They are both great parade ground generals." I hope you weren't implying that McArthur was a coward. His service in WWI does not support that.
The Storyteller's Daughter by Saira Shah documents the destruction of Afghanistan from the invasion of the Soviets, the rule of the Taliban and the aftermath of the US invasion through 2002. The exodus of the professional classes coupled with 2 generations of people who have known nothing but war will make its rebuilding very difficult and a long time in coming. Iraq could very easily wind up in the same position.
I figure Iraqis will sort it out once we live.
I really do not believe that they will split it into 3 countries...perhaps grant Kurds some more autonomy than uncle saddam did...
"We had to destroy the nation in order to save it."
Yeah. It's working.
Just like Vietnam was, right before the Tet Offensive.
I think it'll stay nice & peaceful just long enough for the grunts to get lax - unavoidable for that to happen, it's just human nature when you've been put through the loud scary meatgrinder & then have a sufficiently long period of peace & quiet. No matter how many times you're told to "look sharp" you WILL get to a point where you aren't on full alert anymore. Then they probably opt to leave it a bit longer after that - just to make sure you've REALLY got your pants all the way down.
Pretty soon those militias are gonna run out of people to "cleanse" & they're now armed to the tits. They STILL want America out. I hear the calm before the shitstorm here. Even in the absence of a planned attack, there's a serious possibility of a lethal SNAFU. Eventually some airborne cowboy's going to bomb the wrong people - & that fuse will be about 20 nanometers long when it starts crackling.
Paybacks are a bitch.
"The surge is working"
Since when did the metric of whats working (winning) or not, become attached to a relative reduction in violence? Now that violence has been reduced to 2006 levels, does that mean we were winning then but didn't know it? Last I heard the Marines are pulling out of Fallujah and turning it over to the tribal awakening militias. How does that differ from 2004, when they backed out of Fallujah and let the militants have control of it? According to the new surge standards of winning, the U.S. made a big mistake in not declaring Victory! and We're Winning! back then, an saved a couple hundred thousand dead. Ever so slowly, they walk backwards to unravel the holocaust "Boots n'Suits" Bremmer unleashed on the country. Sooner or later they'll arrive all the way back to square one, and install a pro U.S. autocratic secular Sunni dictator to run the country and call that "winning'. If they're really lucky.
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