Necon bullshit once again gets all the print space it desires on the pages of the Washington Post.
The full surge has been in place and operating for just over six months, and already violence has fallen dramatically across the country. The achievement in such a short time of significant legislation that requires all sides to accept risk and compromise with people they had been fighting only a few months ago is remarkable. It would have been unattainable without the change in strategy and addition of American forces that helped bring the violence down. --WAPO
This editorial claptrap from Messrs. Keane, Kagan, and the known liar O'Hanlon is part of the current push to get us to swallow that "The Surge Is Working"©.
The New York Times' Michael Gordon helps out with an attack which is double pronged. He of course pushes "The Surge Is Working"© meme and also takes a whack at those silly cut and run surrender-crats, the democratic presidential candidates in "War, Meet the 2008 Campaign"
The politicians, on the other hand, seemed more intent on addressing public impatience with an open-ended commitment in Iraq, either by promising prompt withdrawal (the Democrats) or by suggesting that victory may be near (the Republicans).
Anthony Cordesman, a military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who regularly visits Iraq, put it this way: “You have to grade all the candidates between a D-minus and an F-plus. The Republicans are talking about this as if we have won and as if Iraq is the center of the war on terrorism, rather than Afghanistan and Pakistan and a host of movements in 50 other countries.
“The Democrats talk about this as if the only problem is to withdraw and the difference is over how quickly to do it.”
On the ground with the troops, it is clear that a major military change was in fact made in Iraq last year — not so much the addition of 30,000 troops, but the shift to a counterinsurgency strategy for using them. That strategy made the protection of Iraq’s population a paramount goal in an effort to drive a wedge between the people and the militants and to encourage Iraqis to provide intelligence that the American military forces need to track down an elusive foe.
The emphasis mine. The latter part of their strategy, getting the Iraqi's to provide intelligence to the military is doomed. Why? Because we torture. Remember all those times I quoted U.S. intelligence training on why you don't torture is because you hamper any future intelligence gathering ability. The chickens have come home to roost. They might be getting some intelligence but be sure it's been slowed to a trickle. Who in their right mind would want to be seen talking to the U.S.?
More importantly, the Neo-cons and CENTCOM are trying to say that the strategy shift in Iraq wasn't just increasing the troop count but a change in their overarching strategy and now they are being policemen, and protecting the Iraqi's. Then why the hell did nearly 100 Iraq's die just the other day?
The street battles between members of a messianic cult and Iraqi troops raged for a second day as the death toll from the fighting in two predominantly Shiite southern cities rose from 50 to at least 68.
Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen. At least 10 people were reported slain in Nasiriyah Friday...U.S. military spokesman Maj. Brad Leighton said jet fighters flew over the area in a show of force after the Iraqis requested help, but said no airstrikes were carried out and the only U.S. involvement was the air support.
If our whole new strategy is protecting Iraqi's. Why aren't we doing it?
The surge is yet another spin-war from the pentagon and I don't know if anybody is paying attention but the casualties for January have shot right back up to more than 1 day. But don't worry, "The Surge Is Working"©
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