Sending more troops will only fuel violence: Pentagon

[lovuian]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20961356-2703,00.html

GEORGE W. Bush's controversial plans to send tens of thousands more US troops to Iraq are being resisted by leading figures at the Pentagon.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US military’s most senior generals, are concerned that such a short-term surge in the US presence would further fuel the fighting by armed factions in Iraq rather than pacify the country.

Their misgivings come as the Pentagon reported yesterday that violence in Iraq had reached unprecedented levels.

The Pentagon’s most pessimistic report yet on Iraq states that violent attacks are now at record highs of 959 a week; that Shia death squads have eclipsed al-Qa'ida as the most lethal and destabilising force in the country; and that insurgent efforts to undermine the Iraqi Government are succeeding.

But the most significant conclusion is that the large military operation begun in August by American and Iraqi forces to stabilise Baghdad — a move that included beefing up US troop levels in the capital — has utterly failed.

more...
Gates made a surprise visit to Baghdad
It only gives more targets

[rollopollo]

1. When the military itself...

...says that the situation is getting worse and more troops won't help (essentially, we want to withdraw, though they can't say it), then you know you're really in trouble. The military are usually the last ones to concede that their efforts aren't working and it requires civillian leadership to make the decision to rein in their agressive instincts. Some may say that this report doesn't say "Mr. President, you must withdraw". But this is as close as senior military officers will come to saying that.
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General Sattler appeared to imply that no amount of extra troops could quell the violence. “I don’t know how many forces you could push into a country . . . that could cover the entire country, where these death squads wouldn’t find somebody.
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So now it's official. The American people don't want us in Iraq (election). The world doesn't want us in Iraq (poll). The Iraqi people don't want us in Iraq (poll): and that includes the Sunni and the Shi'ites. Congress doesn't want us to be in Iraq (majority- democrat) And now the military is effectively saying despite our presence, things are worsening and implying that they too, don't want to be in Iraq. There recently was a petiton signed by over 100 soldiers requesting to end the war. So basically everyone seems to be in consensus about ending the Iraq war except one person. And unfortunately because of that one person's intransigence, the suffering and lost life will continue.