Can the Iraq 'Surge' Be Salvaged?

[sabra]

Source: WSJ

As Violence Seems to Outpace Progress, Officials Talk of Next Steps

WASHINGTON -- When the Bush administration decided to send tens of thousands of additional troops to Iraq, the strategy rested on an unspoken trade-off: U.S. troops would risk greater casualties to tamp down violence and buy the Baghdad government time to make the political compromises needed to reconcile the country's warring factions.

But a resurgence of sectarian violence and attacks on U.S. troops, coupled with little to no progress on crucial Iraqi political goals, is already spurring discussion about whether the current strategy can succeed.

...

In Baghdad, the number of sectarian killings also has begun to climb again. An American official in the U.S. Embassy there said more than 400 unidentified corpses had been found so far this month, up from 320 found in January, the last month before the additional U.S. forces began arriving in Baghdad.

...

But even the staunchest supporters of the "surge" strategy acknowledge that the U.S. must do more to push political reconciliation in Baghdad among feuding Sunnis and Shiites. One debate roiling Baghdad now concerns whether the political process is stalled because elected officials are merely inneffectual or because they are more interested in advancing their sectarian agendas than in governance. The strategy review conducted for Gen. Petraeus seems to conclude it is a bit of both. The report argues that Iraq is essentially a failed state and that the U.S. must devote far more effort to making Iraq's ministries work, said officials who participated in the review.

"We've been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty," says one U.S. military official involved in a review of the surge for Gen. Petraeus.

It also recommends that the U.S. take a more active role in "isolating the irreconcilable Iraqi government officials from the reconcilable ones" by demanding they be replaced, said the military official who was involved in the review. Stephen Biddle, who served on the panel, said he believes Iraq is in the midst of a low-grade sectarian civil war and that U.S. forces should be used as leverage to compel Sunnis and Shiites to reach an accord.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118056694765119209.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

[dailykoff]

1. '"We've been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty,"

says one U.S. military official involved in a review of the surge. . . .'

Only the WSJ could print a line like that and expect their deluded readers to believe it.

[Solly Mack]

2. I was just about to note the same quote

What a line of bovine caca

[IndianaGreen]

3. A quote worthy of Orwell's Ministry of Truth

And people wonder why the Pentagon has no credibility left.

[Lasher]

4. Reminds me of this quote about Saint Ronnie

"He has the ability to make statements that are so far outside the parameters of logic that they leave you speechless" -- Patti Davis (formerly Patricia Ann Reagan) talking about her father, The Way I See It

Edit: And just how long was this escallation originally supposed to last? I think Junior's now saying it shouldn't be any longer than 50 years.

[Eagle_Eye]

5. Both the Shiites and the Sunnis are planting IEDs to kill American troops

All this 'Surge' has done is give evidence that violence will not work in Iraq. It is clear to me that the troops need to be withdrawn as soon as possible, and a diplomatic solution found to this problem.

[DFW]

6. "Salvage" implies there was something to save in the first place

I don't see that the "surge" has done any good at all, and therefore
I don't understand why anyone thinks there is any salvaging to do.

Someone show me what good it has accomplished so far, and then I'll
contemplate whether or not there is any part of it worth "salvaging."

As it is, it looks to me like this is one ship that sank before it ever sailed.

[bklyncowgirl]

7. The "Surge" was dead on arrival.

Maybe, just maybe, had Bush sent in enough troops at the beginning of this misbegotten war, things might have turned out better although the far better course would have been to stay out of Iraq entirely.

He didn't, American troops have been sent to do an impossible job in an impossible situation.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and all who aided and abetted them should burn in hell.