So much for the “surge”

April 2, 2007 in Political Animals | 2 comments

Via Juan Cole, we learn just what a tremendous success the “surge” has been in Iraq:

For all those journalists and politicians who keep insisting that there are new “glimmers” of “hope” in Iraq because of the new security plan started 6 weeks ago, here is a sobering statistic from the Iraqi government…

Iraqis killed in February: 1806 (64.5/day)
Iraqis killed in March: 2078 (67/day)
That is a 15% increase!

Of course, the real numbers are much higher than these government statistics suggest, since passive information gathering on casualties only catches a fraction.

So, someone please explain this to me: we send more troops to Iraq to increase security, and Iraqi deaths increase. How, exactly, is that a good sign?

And how is sending more of America’s best and brightest into the meatgrinder that is the Iraqi civil war, only to bring them home maimed or in body bags (3243 dead, 24,314 wounded), going to improve anything?

The US is engaged now in a war of choice: Bush chose to invade Iraq, and he has chosen to do nothing to bring the war to an end. The war was sold to the American people with lies and distortions, and the far right has kept up an endless barrage of lies and distortions ever since. Someone explain to me why any Americans should be dying in such a war.

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April 2, 2007 at 2:20 pm

mel

It’s simple, the troop increase was to provide increased security for visiting jackanapes so they can return and report to America how they felt complete safe walking the streets of Baghdad.

“Less then 30 minutes after McCain wrapped up, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference.”

John McCain … what a fuckwad.

April 2, 2007 at 11:26 pm

kemibe

“Someone explain to me why any Americans should be dying in such a war.”

Because to not continue this war is clearly to concede the globe to Islamic terrorism and indoctrination, or so some say.

Simply put, if the opportunity to kill Muslims arises, it must be carried out. Maintaining a military presence in Iraq, no matter how strategically fruitless it is to do so, is a sure way to kill some Iraqis. End of story.