so much for the "surge"

[trapfive]

Somebody needs to tell Juan Mc, the surge is about to unravel.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Lisa S]

"The surge is working my friend go back to sleep!"

[EvilEngineer]

I don't think they understand that when they talk about a strategy for months ahead of time.... even in that part of the world they can get wind of it and prepare. "Oh, you are sending 30,000 more men here... ok I'll go somewhere else for now."

[WarningSLO]

He will spin it to his advantage somehow.

Just like Iraq was going to be a quick and easy win, right McWar?

[nullvalu]

The troops say "Let Us Win", can't you shut up about the failings of the war and listen to the troops? Just shut up and let them win!!

[pacelli]

Straight Talk vs. Straight Talk on the surge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI

[Lucid American]

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr may let a six-month cease-fire expire as soon as Saturday, a move that could send his Shiite militia fighters back to the streets and jeopardize security gains that have led to a sharp decline in violence.

AARRGH! I remember seeing a blurb about this cease fire when it happened, and I searched for it a few times since to see how it corresponded to the decrease in violence that lead to claims that the surge was working.

Pretty interesting how the timelines add up.

[Ball]

My friends, we need to surge the surge so we can accomplish the mission that was accomplished and win the war that was won for the next 10,000 years

[colecrowe]

AARRGH! I remember seeing a blurb about this cease fire when it happened, and I searched for it a few times since to see how it corresponded to the decrease in violence that lead to claims that the surge was working.

Pretty interesting how the timelines add up.

I made the following graphic (well, I labeled the graph from http://icasualties.org) on Jan 29th--so it doesn't include these deaths:

01/31/08Straughter, Matthew F.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11665)Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attackBaghdad
01/31/08Schultz, David E.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11658)Hostile - hostile fire - indirect fireScania
01/31/08Norman, Michael A.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11659)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackBaghdad
01/28/08Craig, James E.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11654)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackMosul
01/28/08Jeffries, Gary W.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11654)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackMosul
01/28/08Marshall, Evan A.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11654)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackMosul
01/28/08Meyer, Brandon A.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11654)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackMosul
01/28/08Young, Joshua A. R.DoD Confirmation (http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11654)Hostile - hostile fire - IED attackMosul

which made the Jan08 line go above the Dec07 line.

Link to graph (there is a zoom button to the top-right of the image here): http://picasaweb.google.com/croweswedding/Iraq/photo#5169118197652832050


http://lh4.google.com/croweswedding/R7xlnRUavzI/AAAAAAAAB4M/RYKjRSNG0bg/surge.JPG

[JMann]

I'm sure this has been posted here before but it is the John.he.is video made as a spoof to the O! video. Scary yet funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs

[trapfive]

The troops say "Let Us Win", can't you shut up about the failings of the war and listen to the troops? Just shut up and let them win!!

What does win mean?

What's the best case scenario? At some point we leave Iraq with a democratic style government. This democratic government will most likely be controlled by the Shiite majority leaving the Sunni and Kurds in the minority. So then we'll be backing this Shiite "democracy" against the "insurgent" Sunni and Kurds and the US won't be able to comprehend why these groups plot against our benevolence.

Really, what does win mean?

[ChickenHawk]

Maybe they just need to put Mookie in charge. It sounds like he is the one running the show over there anyway.

[colecrowe]

http://lh4.google.com/croweswedding/R7xlnRUavzI/AAAAAAAAB4M/RYKjRSNG0bg/surge.JPG?imgmax=640 (http://lh4.google.com/croweswedding/R7xlnRUavzI/AAAAAAAAB4M/RYKjRSNG0bg/surge.JPG?imgmax=640)[/quote]


The LOW line looks wrong, but technically it is entirely correct (though I didn't do it intentionally). Feb 04 looks like it is lower, but...

Feb '04 had 20 deaths in 28 days, avg = 1.4 deaths per day
Dec '07 had 23 deaths in 31 days, avg = 1.35 deaths per day

[RonPaulwillWin]

I hope the surge DOES work....even better reason to bring the troops home.

[IRO-bot]

I read somewhere in LRC that the Sunni's were getting paid $800,000 to not fight. Something like $10 a day.

[JMann]

http://lh4.google.com/croweswedding/R7xlnRUavzI/AAAAAAAAB4M/RYKjRSNG0bg/surge.JPG?imgmax=640 (http://lh4.google.com/croweswedding/R7xlnRUavzI/AAAAAAAAB4M/RYKjRSNG0bg/surge.JPG?imgmax=640)


The LOW line looks wrong, but technically it is entirely correct (though I didn't do it intentionally). Feb 04 looks like it is lower, but...

Feb '04 had 20 deaths in 28 days, avg = 1.4 deaths per day
Dec '07 had 23 deaths in 31 days, avg = 1.35 deaths per day[/QUOTE]

So it is a good thing that only one and half Americans die each day in Iraq? I mean if we HAVE to be there which with the current administration we do, I support any efforts to reduce deaths. However, I don't see any benefit to any more Americans dieing over there not to mention those that are injured physically and mentally and the number of marriages and families destroyed over the ongoing and never ending conflict.

[colecrowe]

bump

[pacelli]

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/889/iraqembassy3bi0.jpg

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/7494/iraqembassyhmed3phlargemm3.jpg

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8931/iraqembassy2au1.jpg

Construction cranes loom above the site of the new U.S. Embassy being built in Baghdad. The embassy will sit on 104 acres, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and two-thirds the acreage of Washington’s National Mall.


BAGHDAD, Iraq - The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.

The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome.

“We can’t talk about it. Security reasons,” Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12319798/



Others point out the huge "footprint" the United States is forging in the heart of Baghdad, a capital once inhabited by late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the message it sends to Iraqis who in surveys suggest they are uncomfortable with the prospect of a long-term American presence there.

Rubin pointed out the embassy property is smack in between two major shopping districts — the Mansoor and the Karada — making it a problem for both symbolic and practical reasons.

"You should have put (the embassy) on the edge of the city, where it does not disrupt the main business districts of the city," he said. "The symbolism is this is not an embassy, but a palace."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277953,00.html


Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations had a different way to describe the embassy, particularly in the even of an all out civil war: "If the government of Iraq collapses and becomes transparently just one party in a civil war, you've got Ft. Apache in the middle of Indian country, but the Indians have mortars now."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/07/half-billion-do.html

[colecrowe]

bump

[Join The Paul Side]

What does win mean?

What's the best case scenario? At some point we leave Iraq with a democratic style government. This democratic government will most likely be controlled by the Shiite majority leaving the Sunni and Kurds in the minority. So then we'll be backing this Shiite "democracy" against the "insurgent" Sunni and Kurds and the US won't be able to comprehend why these groups plot against our benevolence.

Really, what does win mean?


Win means when all the "terrists" are gone and we have our stooge Iraqi Government in place that doesn't complain when we take their oil. That's what "win" means. :rolleyes:

[Bruno]

:D


My friends, we need to surge the surge so we can accomplish the mission that was accomplished and win the war that was won for the next 10,000 years

[colecrowe]

bump

[hawks4ronpaul]

My friends, we need to surge the surge so we can accomplish the mission that was accomplished and win the war that was won for the next 10,000 years

Exactly, see http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/2008/01/finish-job-scam.html

[forsmant]

I think we should just come out with the true intentions of the war. The intention of opening up Iraq to foreign oil corporations to secure oil for western nations. This is a good strategic move for the United States. We also got rid of Saddam and his human rights violations. It is just to bad that Bush had to cloak his intentions in deceit of WMD's.

The embassy looks as though we are going to rule that country through the back door channels to protect western investment. No politician is willing to come out and say this. it is not politically correct to conquer countries anymore.

[skeryl]

I dont know if this info about the surge has been posted before... but here goes

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

Some 70,000 former insurgents are now being paid $10 a day by the U.S. military. It costs about a quarter billion dollars a year.

It's a controversial strategy, and Macgregor warns that it's creating a parallel military force in Iraq that is made up almost entirely of Sunni Muslims.

"We need to understand that buying off your enemy is a good short-term solution to gain a respite from violence," he says, "but it's not a long-term solution to creating a legitimate political order inside a country that, quite frankly, is recovering from the worst sort of civil war."