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RSS icon Comments on The Surge Is Working

1

Maybe Obama can visit Iraq without getting all the Iraqis he meets murdered the next day, like McCain did.

Posted by Fnarf | June 17, 2008 5:19 PM
2

The Surge "working" doesn't change shit. It merely proves that given an endless supply of money & cannon fodder, that we can increase security.

But the supply of money is not endless.

Cannon fodder? Maybe.

Posted by max solomon | June 17, 2008 5:31 PM
3

What do these "visit Iraq" junkets accomplish?

One possible benefit could be the ability to provide a tonic for the troops ("they care enough about us back home to come visit"), and there is limited ability to witness the life during wartime experience of the soldier and the civilian.

But as salutary as the former benefit may be, I suspect the latter benefit is incredibly reduced by security processes; the vast majority of official visitors are kept in the Green Zone or, as with McCain's infamous market visit weighed down by body armor (because we all know hand-thrown fish are nothing compared to hand-thrown grenades), kept so completely removed from reality as to render the whole affair useless, at least as a window into the culture.

In the absence of a truly meaningful rationale, we are left with the lingering suspicion that all this is a positioning play. A political opportunity. A photo op.

None of which will keep a soldier alive or an Iraqi citizen from being blown to bits. Perhaps next time when Mr. Obama goes to Iraq, he'll have the power of the nation at his back as our President.

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | June 17, 2008 5:31 PM
4


Wait, wasn't there a story this weekend that we're losing in Afghanistan but winning in Iraq this month?


Are we winning in Eastasia or Eurasia today??


FSM help me, I wish they could at least keep their propaganda and lies straight.

Posted by Original Andrew | June 17, 2008 5:34 PM
5

That'd be really depressing if it wasn't hilarious. Or the other way around.
Not sure. I neither laughed nor cried, but I appreciate the irony and misery of the situation.

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | June 17, 2008 5:38 PM
6

Hmm... other food for thought from the BBC.

The number of attacks by insurgents and sectarian factions has dropped significantly in Baghdad, although sporadic shootings and bombings have continued.

Some 500 Iraqis were killed last month, compared with more than 1,000 in April.

And the toll of American soldiers killed in May - at 19 - was the lowest monthly figure since the conflict began.

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | June 17, 2008 5:44 PM
7

To whom it may concern,
If you make a link in the format <a href="http://google.com/""></a> it bypasses your nofollow thingy. Note the two quotation marks.

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | June 17, 2008 5:49 PM
8

Oh goodie, something to say that the surge is not 100% successful! Fits so nicely in with your talking points.

Posted by raindrop | June 17, 2008 5:52 PM
9

McCain's not thinking clearly on strategy here. If the surge is working so well, then why don't we start talking about leaving?

Posted by keshmeshi | June 17, 2008 6:00 PM
10

Am I the only one worried about Barrack"s safety? Someone better keep an an eye on Hillary. An accident in Iraq could mean Hillary gets the nomination.

Posted by elswinger | June 17, 2008 7:01 PM
11

@10 There is no terrorist on Earth who wants Obama dead (outside of the US).
Actually, there might be something in for Iraqi Sunnis, since they're a minority, and therefore need the US to protect them from the Shi'a.... but I still don't think they really want to.
He's safer over there than here, in any case.

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | June 17, 2008 7:05 PM
12

It’s interesting to think that insurgents in Iraq, are watching news about US the US election. Upon seeing that their lull in fighting is hurting rather then helping Obama, the one candidate who may withdraw and has a shot of winning, they step up attacks again. So much for the Republican’s surge is working argument. It’s a savvy ploy, or just a well placed out burst in violence.

Posted by bubbles | June 18, 2008 1:21 AM
13

@2:

Unfortunately for Obama, the surge is more than just "an endless supply of money & cannon fodder". This is what we liberals overlook, and it's going to be Obama's weak spot.

The surge was also a shift in the way our troops engaged with the Iraqi people. In the first years of the war, American troops would go out into some neighborhood that was under suspicion for some reason, cordon off a few blocks, and throw every male of military age into Abu Ghraib. We realize now that we're not fighting against the Iraqi people, but that the Iraqi people are who we have to win over.

Yes we are there for the wrong reasons. And the fighting will probably never end. But it's a huge vulnerability for Obama to advocate a pullout when the statistics are improving.

Posted by Mark | June 18, 2008 7:35 AM
14

@13
"Yes we are there for the wrong reasons. And the fighting will probably never end. But it's a huge vulnerability for Obama to advocate a pullout when the statistics are improving."

Most Americans and Iraqis favor withdrawal, so it's really hard to see this as some huge liability.

Posted by Bison | June 18, 2008 12:00 PM
15

I've got it! They want him to go to Iraq so he can be photographed doing something wrong, like pointing a weapon backwards or looking up the barrel of something dangerous, then they'll have their "Dukakis in tank with helmet on" visual to drag him through the mud as a sissy/fag/limp dick/not-a-real-warrior-to-protect-the-homeland.

Yes, we can't leave. We're still not done training the ARVN's! When is McCain going to be asked his opinion about the Saigon gov't and the fighting efficiency of the ARVN's? Because I'd really like to know if he ever struggled with that concept. He may be a VN veteran, but he never had to deal with the ARVN's.

And it's the same goddamn thing again. No amount of money we can fling, no amount of troops we can send can make the squabbling elites and ethnicities form a nation -- or inspire the people to act like one nation and enforce order among themselves.

It's not something we can do to them or for them.

(But we're keeping the superbases. That goes without sayin'.)

Posted by CP | June 18, 2008 5:16 PM

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