Nahhhh….I’m certain the full implementation of the surge had absolutely NOTHING to do with “modest security gains” made in Iraq. As a matter of fact, the US probably would have won every single war we’ve ever been in IF we never bothered to show up, fight, and kill our enemy. Our absence probably would have scared the $h*t out of Hitler and Tojo.

“[F]earing a Coalition withdrawal, some tribal elements and Sunni groups probably will continue to seek accommodation with the Coalition to strengthen themselves for a post- Coalition security environment”

Gee if only such an al Anbar security alliance had an easily quoted name you could use in future. Something along the lines of:

The Anbar Salvation Council formed in September. American forces contacted the tribes and began to coordinate their efforts in the city of Ramadi. Shortly before this event, Anbar had been considered a lost cause. This turn around was first reported by military and Iraqi bloggers at the time.

So in summary, the US COIN strategy isn’t working, because the progress that is seen is due to the US COIN strategy. Awesome.

And this type of misrepresentation, which relies on readers never having read anything about any of these efforts at any point during the past year, goes over just fine here on ThinkProgress for obvious reasons.
Not a single person querying the blatant ignorance on display. Fantastic.

Just yesterday the LA Times reported that since the surge started there has been 600,000 new internal refugees.
Comment by DallasNE — August 25, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

Did they ?

LATIMES.COM ARTICLES
No matches found on search for: internal refugees iraq surge
Try broadening your search criteria.

lies to score cheap political points at home.
Comment by Troll Hater — August 24, 2007 @ 5:53 pm

Speaking of which…
Much of the touted security gains have come in the Anbar province, a region that was not the target of Bush’s escalation.

Wikipedia: Iraq War troop surge of 2007
Paragraph fkn 1:

The “troop surge” is a phrase commonly used to describe … an increase in the number of American troops deployed to the Iraq War to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province.

You’ve all been talking about the troop escalation in Iraq daily for more than 6 months, but when someone posts such a clearly inaccurate statement about something so fundamental as it not targetting one of the only 2 regions it does target, not one of you notices ?

It’s pretty much the same as statement that there are no Canadian NHL teams, something you would know to be untrue if you ever gave enough of a shit about the NHL to ever read about it just once.
Great education you’re getting here kids.

As I have said elsewhere, progress is something that can be measured. You have a base number then take a later snapshot and compare the two. With internal refugees we have negative progress that has been described as stupefying. Somehow I think Gen. David Patraeous will not comment on the refugee situation — perhaps the most important matrix of all.

And what the Right fears is that the Democrats may actually be right in the end. But they admit defeat without actually admitting it; just look at the recent news that the WH has dropped the requirement, as justification for the “surge,” that the Iraqi government get it’s ass in gear and show progress on political reconciliation.

As for the Dems losing elections based on their stance on Iraq, yeah, that really happened in Nov. 2006, didn’t it?

Comment by JimBob — August 24, 2007 @ 6:43 pm”

And what the left fears most is success in Iraq, which is why you all are pushing your Democrats to scuttle every attempt at winning.

However, the Democrats are smart enough to realize that they cannot win actual elections with only the support of the far left, which accounts for far less than 25% of the general population (the percentage the left constantly attributes to Bush supporters).

The anti-war far-left is invested in defeat in Iraq. If we are successful, the fringe left will be once again discredited, and once again relegated to the sidelines of political debate.

However, the frustration is starting to show. The more the far-left realizes that their once confident feeling of power is really nothing more than a mere apparition, the wilder and more bizarre the charges get. And ironically, the more marginalized the far left becomes. It’s the last gasp of the nutroots:

No one is going to be impeached.

No one is going to be charged with any war crimes.

No one is going to jail.

Our military is not leaving Iraq.

Our government is getting the tools necessary to fight this war on terror through the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act.

We will most likely be striking against Iran prior to Bush leaving office, with the blessing of a good percentage of the Democrats.

Sorry folks, the dreams of a far-left America, sitting ripe for further attack by religious nuts with box cutters, just isn’t going to happen.

this is what Hambler calls free and open dialogauge in a democracy…”wishy washy banter”…

why can’t everyone just listen and obey the wisdom of Dick “saddam has nukes” Cheney, DOnald “we know where the weapons are” Rumsfeld and
Paul “iraqs oil money will pay for its reconstruction” Wolfiewitz?

theres only two sides? wow, glad your mind sees the world in such mercifully simple terms

> when we look like we are about to abandon them.

oh god… please explain how you got such a clever insight into the mass psychology of the iraqi mind?

and what serious talk of withdraw was there before the rethugs lost congress? nooone… your saying everything was going swimingly before then?

so you’re saying, if we are asked to leave by either majority of iraqis or the democratically elected government, we should ,right?

you and your heroes have been wrong about everything in iraq and you will continue to be wrong in the future..

A large part of the improvement is due to the fact that many Sunni tribes in Anbar turned against Al Qaeda. That began last December BEFORE THE SURGE WAS EVEN ANNOUNCED.

http://radamisto.blogspot.com/2007/07/sen-graham-lying-whore.html

Well, to listen to the “war” supporters, the surge is working. This despite the “wishy-washy banter in Congress.”

You want it both ways, don’t you, Hendler???

When we had momentum after the invasion, and appeared to be looking to invade Iran as well, the various tribal leaders and people of Iraq seemed confident of Iraq’s future (with the exception of Muqtada Al Sadr, who we should have killed when we had several chances to do so), but we allowed that to slip, and so went the security situation there.

How can a Godless atheist lefty be an Allah fundamentalist Islamic?

Your posts are irrational, illogical and just plain lack common sense.

You stated earlier the American people didn’t know everything the military was doing, now your stating that you know more than they do.

Your a bloviator, thru and thru and back again.

Comment by Accuse Cheney — August 24, 2007 @ 7:38 pm

Its because your annoying and add nothing to the thread but assinine self-serving baseless ad hominem attacks.

Comment by pete — August 24, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
——-

TP nulled me after one comment, and I haven’t been able to post on this thread since.

You are nothing but a pawn in a deadly game of Islamo-Lefty Chess!!!

Comment by pete — August 24, 2007 @ 7:16 pm

Simple minds have trouble with even simple questions. That is why they invented Faux NoNooz, for the “simple” look at the world.