Florida newspaper declares we are winning in Iraq...only a few "scattered battles" now.

madfloridian

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Sun Jul-27-08 02:58 PM
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Florida newspaper declares we are winning in Iraq...only a few "scattered battles" now.

The headline is just so blatant and so misleading. I find myself wondering how many will like me consider it just another bit of propaganda in a endless stream of such. Propaganda works, though, and headlines like this one are comforting to those who are not really paying attention.

America is now winning the Iraq War

BAGHDAD | The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace - a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

I find this paragraph about the number of insurgent attacks upsetting in its acceptance of the "two dozen" a day lately.

Statistics show violence at a four-year low. The monthly American death toll appears to be at its lowest of the war - four killed in action so far this month as of Friday, compared with 66 in July a year ago. From a daily average of 160 insurgent attacks in July 2007, the average has plummeted to about two dozen a day this month. On Wednesday the nationwide total was 13.

That does not take into account the other factors involved. It is just too simplistic to even use the word "winning". It is propaganda.

Obama said it well today on MTP..he pointed out the many other factors in play. The surge was only a small part of any of it.

SEN. OBAMA: Well, the--well, the--look, there's no doubt, and I've said this repeatedly, that our troops make a difference. If--you know, they do extraordinary work. The troops that I met, they were proud of their work, they had made enormous sacrifices, they had fought, they had helped to construct schools and, and rebuilt the countryside. But, for example, in Anbar Province, where we went to visit, the Sunni awakening took place before the surge started, and tribal leaders made a decision that, instead of fighting the Americans, we're going to work with the Americans against al-Qaeda. That was a political decision that was made that has made a huge difference in this entire process.

..."But we can have a whole range of arguments about past decisions--the decision to go into Iraq in the first place, and whether that was a good strategic decision, where we've spent a trillion dollars at least by the time this thing is over, lost thousands of lives in pursuit of goals John McCain supported that turned out to be false."

Obama on MTP

There is absolutely no recognition in the article from the Florida newspaper, nor will there be...of the fact that we should not have been there in the first place. We invaded a country that was no threat to us.

It was all really about what we as a country did

It is about the fact that we have become a nation that invades countries who were not a threat. It is about the fact that before that invasion so many lies were told to the country.

It is about the fact that politicians who were in doubt about it often took the easy way out...going along rather than confronting.

It is about the fact that a hurry-up execution was held, and our media gloated and carried on like we had done something wonderful. It is about how we treated another country's leader by showing a soldier examining his mouth on public television.

It is about how we killed his sons and put their bodies on public display on our television...with gloating.

We attacked a country that was no threat, we executed its leader. It is not about that leader and how "bad" he was. It is about how our country has lowered its moral and ethical standards, about how our media is the outlet for the government. It is about the fact that we lost our credibility in the world.

It is about us and what we did. We invaded a country based on lies, we executed its leader, and we showed it on our television mockingly.

In the words of Helen Thomas who quotes VT Senator George Aiken.. sounds like we are declaring victory and getting out.

Helen Thomas: Declare victory and leave.

President Bush should take advice from a Vietnam-era Republican senator: Declare a victory in Iraq and get out.The late Sen. George Aiken, R-Vt., gave that counsel to both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon when things were going from bad to worse in the Vietnam War, but they ignored him.

Both presidents would have looked better in the history books had they listened to the venerable senator. But, alas, neither wanted to be seen as retreating or losing a war.

Bush is just beginning to come to terms with the high human and financial cost of fulfilling his obsession -- the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The loss of life among American soldiers and the bleeding of the U.S. economy are beginning to hit home with the public. The result: There is a new defensiveness among Bush and his top advisors.

That was written by Helen Thomas in 2003. Today we see papers using misleading headlines declaring us victors, just as Bush did when he said Mission Accomplished on that carrier in 2003.

And still there is little but propaganda. The media is boiling everything down to "the surge" so simplistic minds can grasp it...and few bother to dispute it.