THE SURGE – ANOTHER MISSION BLOWN

For a while there it seemed as if the surge might be working. For my part, I had initially predicted it to be a dark farce then ate crow when it appeared that the Patraeus strategy of buying the sheiks’ loyalty was working. At this point, though, I think it is abundantly clear that the strategy has done nothing more than to prolong the time before one of two things happens. Either the Iraq civil war will break out uncontrollably and engulf our troops in the inevitable fight for political dominance within that country, or internal negotiations between the new governing bodies and the rival factions will succeed in settling ethnic scores to the point that Iraqis can work together to solve the tremendous problems our meddling has created for them.

Only last week we passed the anniversary of W’s triumphant strut across the deck of an aircraft carrier declaring victory in Iraq. BushCo can try all they want to say that the “Mission Accomplished” banner meant something different than that portrayed in the press at the time, but the picture Shrub gave us all by strutting across that deck in a flight suit belies any such attempt.

The surge is just one more example of the decision-making quality of our present “leaders”. There are darn few, if any, good outcomes anyone can point to in the legacy of this administration, and the surge is proving to be just another blunder. The green zone, supposedly Iraq’s safe area, tells the story. No other area of the country is considered to be as safe and yet rockets and mortar rounds have been landing there with alacrity. The wife of the president was fired upon on her way to the theater this week-end, and five more American soldiers gave their lives this week-end.

Just as a rough rule of thumb, by the way, you can figure that about 100 Iraqis die for every American soldier killed, so it is unlikely that the rest of the country – about which we generally hear nothing from our press unless a major battle takes place – had a very nice week-end either.

Now BushCo wants to up the ante in Afghanistan, too. They want American troops to be given command of the southern part of that country in the area where the Taliban has most effectively taken root again.

I supported our initial invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban was definitely a plague on the country, and their support of Al Qaida prior to and after 9-11 gave us additional cause to drive them out of power. We immediately dropped the ball there, however, when BushCo pushed the neo-con call for invading Iraq into the forefront and we lost the focus of the fight against Al Qaida, so it seems possible that re-exerting ourselves in that country might be the right thing to do. It’s a remote possibility, though, as there is very little chance that we could turn it into a rout of Al Qaida and the Taliban, but rather would just prolong the agony of war there, too.

There has to be a better way, but the chances of finding it under BushCo are zero to none.


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle