As Iraq surge sputters, PR surge cranks up

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/08/a12a_leadedit_iraq_0408.html

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" stunt from May 2003 temporarily blinded America to the deadly pitfalls ahead.

Not everyone learned the lesson. This time, the subject is "the surge," and the message is the same: "Mission Accomplished." The premature celebration is just as wrong now as it was then.

Today and Wednesday, Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testify before Congress. A column in Monday's Wall Street Journal by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., lays out the rationale for flying the Mission Accomplished banner. "No one can deny," they write, "the dramatic improvement in security in Iraq achieved by Gen. Petraeus, the brave troops under his command, and the Iraqi security forces." They go on to cite casualty statistics that, conveniently, end with February.

Since then, attacks on U.S. troops have become more effective, including rocket attacks Sunday that killed two in the supposedly safe Green Zone. The Sunni-dominated Al-Qaeda in Iraq also has stepped up attacks on Iraqi civilians. Most damaging, though, has been Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's botched operation against rival Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra.

Not only did 1,000 Iraqi troops refuse to fight, the anti-American Sadr emerged with his political and military power enhanced while Mr. Maliki's was severely diminished, further undercutting the idea that he can engineer the Iraqi political reconciliation that was supposed to be the surge's ultimate benefit.