Not the Bush 'surge', but rather prior completion of ethnic cleansing. calmed Iraq: Satellite images

ProgressiveEconomist

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Wed Sep-01-10 01:39 AM
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Not the Bush 'surge', but rather prior completion of ethnic cleansing. calmed Iraq: Satellite images

"... the surge has had no observable effect" (See last paragraph below).

The "success" of the surge in Iraq is a convenient Republican lie, according to scientific evidence from satellite images of declining populations in minority Sunni neighborhoods. Did you miss this two-year-old report?

Why did Democrats ultimately give up pointing out the obvious truth and and go along with the Republican deception?

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

IMAGE: http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080919&t=2&i=6073224&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2008-09-19T202401Z_01_N19530660_RTRUKOP_0_PICTURE0

From http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1953066020080919 :

'Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq. By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor; Fri Sep 19, 2008 4:24pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday. The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital....

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shiite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence. "By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement. "Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad became homogenized Sunni or Shiite Muslim enclaves. The study, published in the journal Environment and Planning A, provides more evidence of ethnic conflict in Iraq, which peaked just before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of about 30,000 extra U.S. troops.

The extent to which the troop build-up helped halt Iraq's slide into sectarian civil war has been debated, particularly in the United States, with supporters of the surge saying it was the main contributing factor, and others arguing it was simply one of a number of factors. "Our findings suggest that the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved," Agnew's team wrote in their report....'