So the "surge" is working? Causing more violence in "restive province"

[dajoki]

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: PLEA FOR MORE TROOPS
General says he needs more troops
U.S. commander for northern Iraq cites the growing violence in Diyala province.
By Peter Spiegel, Tina Susman and Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writers
May 12, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-iraq12may12,0,6940484.story?coll=la-home-center

BAGHDAD — The commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq said Friday that he did not have enough troops to deal with the escalating violence in Iraq's Diyala province, an unusually frank assertion for a top officer and a sign that American military officials might be starting to offer more candid and blunt assessments of the war.

Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. "Randy" Mixon also said that the Iraqi government had failed to help the situation in the restive province and that it has been a hindrance at times by failing to support local army and police forces. Diyala borders Baghdad on the east, and violence in the province has grown as U.S. troop levels have been bolstered in the capital.

Mixon's call for help coincides with a rise in the number of sectarian death squad killings in Baghdad. U.S. officials had heralded an earlier decline in such deaths as a sign of the success of the security clampdown in the capital that began Feb. 13.

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It is rare for an officer of Mixon's rank to publicly call for more troops. When Donald H. Rumsfeld was secretary of Defense, there was intense pressure on officers to not make such requests, even privately, according to officers who served in Iraq.

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"It's going to be hard for some in the administration — suddenly they're going to feel it from the inside. I think you're going to see more of it," he said