The Surge Dirge: The Final Chapter
With the surge a flop, the Brits bugging out and Blackwater about the be flushed, are we looking at the makings of Shock and Awe II: The Tehran Edition?
Lost in the din of righteous rightie indignation in their attempts to scuttle the good ship SCHIP was news that another cruise liner these ship of fools frequent had hit the proverbial iceberg.
For months we have been told that the reason for the surge was to create enough stability to allow the various Iraqi factions in the government time to reconcile. The euphemistic “breathing room” was batted about quite at bit.
Well looks like you might not want to hold your breath. Because the Iraqis certainly aren’t.
For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.
“I don’t think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such,” said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. “To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power.”
This was soon followed by word that the British are halving their presence and that the Iraqis are requesting that Blackwater be given their walking papers. All this puts the Bushies in a precarious position of having to continue to justify a strategy that has been a complete failure (not that that has ever stopped them before). And while it may sound good to those wishing to force a change in Iraq policy, the drawbacks are that this could also forces the Bushies to further ratchet up their scapegoating of Iran and drive us further toward confrontation.
If that happens, you can sure the surge won’t be the only thing that is pushing up daisies.
More from Meme. See also PM Carpenter, Cernig and Steve Soto.
(X-posted at The Xsociate Files)
so what’s the alternative? if the surge isnt working, how do you propose we help this country? if its broken (i think it is), if we did it (i think we did) then dont we need to fix it? or help fix it? or help the people who are trying to fix it? (yes, yes, yes…but thats just me and my silly morals)
how do we help them?
hello?
(hello…hello……hello…………hello……………………)
Pick a day in early 2008 and declare it Victory in Iraq Day. Iraqi Independence Day turns all
responsibility over to their independent government much the way the British did India and we did the Phillipines. There is some angst and internal problems to follow but that will happen whether we are there or not. If we want a presence in the region, we can have it on the grounds we are there to protect Iraq’s sovereignty from foreign intervention. It will give us time to regroup and focus our attention on other international issues which have been ignored. I wrote this to senators Byrd and Rockefeller but get nothing except the form letters saying how wonderful they have performed./
Some phrases used above sound hard-hitting, but are really way too soft.
For example: “a strategy that has been a complete failure” should be replaced by “a strategy that has made our enemies stronger.”
You know the story: before we invaded, Iraq was a secular state, Iraq’s army kept Iran at bay, and Al Qaeda was nowhere to be seen. Now, fundamentalist Islamists have placed a third of the country under Sharia law, Iran controlls the largest block in parliament and the largest militia, and Al Qaeda kills our troops every day. That’s three for three - our enemies are stronger.
There is no way a true national security hawk could speak well of this war, or support a candidate that believes in it. It has made our enemies stronger. Clearly, it’s the Democrats that are the party of national security.
Rudy, you talk national security, so why do you favor policies that make America’s enemies stronger?
Randle:
So what’s the alternative, you ask? Try the Biden-Gelb plan for Federalism, which Biden has been pushing for over a year and finally got a “sense of the Senate” approval with about 75 votes last week.
Basically it gets these groups out of each other’s face and puts them in control of their daily lives and internal security. With a very limited scope for the central government, there isn’t the same need for national reconciliation to make it work.
Meanwhile, we scale our mission way back (I call it “mitigate the disaster” mode). I’m not a “bring ‘em all home now” guy - I told you I am a hawk.
Here’s what our remaining troops do. We help the Sunnis chase out Al Qaeda (as they did when they were Saddam’s core constituency). We help assure the Kurds can keep the PKK rebels out of Turkey’s face. And we hope like hell that the Sadrist Shia and SCIRI (e.g. Iranian backed) Shia fight each other to a bloody pulp - that’s a civil war America could stand to see.