News Surge!
Just filing this story away for the inevitable round of “give us more time!!!”, “just six more months!!!!” and “it’s working!!!” when September rolls around.
Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.
The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.
In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face “resistance,” according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times and summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad.
The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops. The last remaining American units in the troop increase are just now arriving.
Violence has diminished in many areas, but it is especially chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad, several senior officers said. Over all, improvements have not yet been as widespread or lasting across Baghdad, they acknowledged.
The answer to this of course is to scream “Victory!” from the top of one’s lungs and to sign up for a website somewhere.
Just filing this story away for the inevitable round of “give us more time!!!”, “just six more months!!!!” and “it’s working!!!” when September rolls around.
Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.
The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.
In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face “resistance,” according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times and summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad.
The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops. The last remaining American units in the troop increase are just now arriving.
Violence has diminished in many areas, but it is especially chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad, several senior officers said. Over all, improvements have not yet been as widespread or lasting across Baghdad, they acknowledged.
The answer to this of course is to scream “Victory!” from the top of one’s lungs and to sign up for a website somewhere.
This is a good opportunity to challenge Frank, Dugger etc to finally and definitively explain what “victory” is in this case, and how it’s preferable to getting our soldiers out of the eye of the storm and then maybe working with the UN to sort out the mess we made.
We’re winning!
Nimrod Gently: Dugger’s too busy saluting his screen; Frank’s too frustrated from explaining repeatedly why things are working well.
Well, some guy got shot in Los Angeles last night, so when you think of it that way, Baghdad doesn’t look so bad.
Squirrel; by “saluting”, you mean fapping, right?
This is a good opportunity to challenge Frank, Dugger etc to finally and definitively explain what “victory” is…
I’ve tried that. I get reminded that Saddam was a monster and leftists have killed 70 kajillion zillion people throughout history.
I expect he alternates, Duros
One more Friedman!* I promise, last time. One more Friedman!
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_%28unit%29
“Our war against terror is proceeding according to the principles that I have made clear to all.
Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country and a target of American justice.
Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world and will be confronted.
And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.
… And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi people.
The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done and then we will leave and we will leave behind a free Iraq.
The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.” – President Bush, May 1, 2003
The answer is, we will leave Iraq when the nation has a stable government and a military and police force capable of neutralizing any threat posed by terrorists or operatives from rogue governments.
The terrorists know this, so they are doing everything they can to force us to abandon our commitment to the nascent Iraqi government.
If we leave now, while al-Qaeda is strong and operatives from Iran are working to supply weapons and personnel to religious factions, and the government of Iraq collapses or Iraq turns into a killing field, then our sacrifices will truly have been in vain. And we will have proven to al-Qaeda that we are indeed paper tigers without the will to fight. And will have demonstrated that the US isn’t worth a shit as an ally; when the going gets tough or when we make a mistake, we cut and run.
If that’s the legacy that your side wishes to embrace, then go for it.
Clap louder you librul traitor!!@#IO#(#(!!!111!!
Okay, Mike, let’s talk about legacy.
If we leave now, while al-Qaeda is strong and operatives from Iran are working to supply weapons and personnel to religious factions,
Six years after 9/11, a tiny group of religious extremists without a tenth of the support and firepower as the Allied Forces are still “strong,” and are fighting us to a standstill. Iran, a nation which had been on the verge of handing its future over to its young moderates, instead became overrun–AGAIN–by the hardline extremists who preached resistance against American occupation of Muslims. This is the legacy of the Bush administration.
and the government of Iraq collapses or Iraq turns into a killing field, then our sacrifices will truly have been in vain.
Iraq already is a killing field and the Iraqi government is a mess of schisms, easily undermined by militia strongmen like Muqtada al-Sadr. They had to be convinced by us that it would not be a good idea to take a vacation in the midst of this violence. Our sacrifices thus far have been in vain, the only question is how much more we’re willing to sacrifice. This, too, is a legacy of the Bush administration.
And we will have proven to al-Qaeda that we are indeed paper tigers without the will to fight.
Instead, we have demonstrated that we have the will to fight somebody who posed no immediate threat instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan. We’re not paper tigers, but we’ve spent so many resources hunting the wrong prey.
And will have demonstrated that the US isn’t worth a shit as an ally; when the going gets tough or when we make a mistake, we cut and run.
The Iraqi government and the Iraqi people believe that our presence in Iraq is doing at least as much harm as good, and they want us to set a timetable to leave. Our ignorance and condescension to them of these requests already demonstrates that we are not good allies. Our fuckups at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in the country demonstrate that we are not good allies. The going got tough in part because of us, not in spite of us.
Al Qaida is emboldened already by our bullheaded refusal to swerve from a losing strategy. They have recruited and trained a brand new crop of Mohammed Attas and Osama bin Ladens throughout said losing strategy, and your solution to combat that is to do more of the bloody same because changing course is somehow as good as “surrender.”
Even football teams know that you don’t call nothing but run plays against a stout defensive line. But if we do the equivalent of that in Iraq, it’s “giving up.”
That kind of boneheaded thinking? That’s the Bush legacy.
Commander Guy’s talking points continue to be parroted and refuted with mind numbing ease.
Sadly al-Qaeda and Iran aren’t behind our problems in Iraq. They might as well have told you it was Monster Society of Evil. “Here’s our set of bad guys, they are solely responsible for everything bad that happens.” It’s more complicated than that really.
If AMerica is Paper Tigers, I guess our president is George Plimpton Bush.
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