SOTU: Bush’s Surge Has Not Worked
SOTU: Bush’s Surge Has Not Worked
Bush said: “While the enemy is still dangerous and more work remains, the American and Iraqi surges have achieved results few of us could have imagined just 1 year ago.”
FACT — VIOLENCE IS DOWN, BUT TROOPS ARE STILL DYING IN IRAQ: A roadside bomb killed five American soldiers today in Mosul, taking to “36 the number of soldiers killed in Iraq this month, up from 23 in December.” [Reuters, 1/28/08]
FACT — IRAQI GOVERNMENT HAS ONLY FULLY MET 3 OF 18 POLITICAL BENCHMARKS:The purpose of the surge was to provide the “breathing space” for political reconciliation to occur. But the Iraqi government has only met three of the 18 benchmarks laid out last year. [Center for American Progress, 1/24/08]
FACT — DE-BAATHIFICATION IS NOT TRUE POLITICAL RECONCILIATION: The de-Baathification law “could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in,” and the “law could set off a new purge of ex-Baathists.” Barely 150 members of the 275-seat parliament attended the session. [NY Times, 1/14/08; Washington Post, 1/22/08; LA Times, 1/13/08]
FACT — VIOLENCE MAY INCREASE IF SADR REVOKES CEASE FIRE: “Influential members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement have urged the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric not to extend a cease-fire when it expires next month, officials said Monday, a move that could jeopardize recent security gains.” [AP, 1/28/08]
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January 28th, 2008 at 10:02 pmARREST THESE MEN.
He’s right, how many imagined no political progress even with increased security in some ways?
January 29th, 2008 at 12:32 amAfter five long years and Chimp skulks behind his podium and tries so poorly to justify his and his masters’ folly in Iraq. “Shoot jist tday five guys got kiltd. thats way better than last year.”
Tell that to their families ASS CLOWN!!! Hang him for war crimes. The deaths of Americans in Iraq can only be justified with truth and justice, not slogan bumperstickers and falsehoods.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:34 amThe surge has NOT promoted a political solution. The surge has not and cannot eliminate what the invasion and occupation of Iraq CAUSED: the emergence of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Of course, whenever Al Qaeda is mentioned, due to fear mongering by bush, we need to note the political differences between the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis involve infinitely greater numbers of people … effectively defining Al Qaeda as a marginal, if significant force in the country.
For ignorant, fear mongering republican candidates to refer to Al Qaeda as a possible “super-power in the middle east” unless we continue our occupation in Iraq, is both asinine and dishonest.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pm