The views articulated in this post do not reflect the opinions of the National Academy of Public Administration, Tatweer, or any other organizations mentioned in the article.

Center for American Progress senior fellow and former Reagan Pentagon official Lawrence Korb recently returned from a 10-day visit to Baghdad to “assist the government of Iraq’s efforts to strengthen public administration in its civilian ministries” and uncovered results that only affirm that “the surge is not working.”

Korb noted that U.S. defense contractors, who have benefited heavily from the Iraq war, were curiously restrained in talking about the situation on the ground on the record. Major defense contractors, including those from Blackwater and Halliburton, were mum about the troop escalation only until Korb emphasized that he was not affiliated with the media:

The long wait did allow me to speak to some of the contractors about the situation on the ground. When I assured them I was not a member of the press, they were unanimous that the surge was not working. One of them said that members of Muqtada Al-Sadr’s militia have sold their guns and melted back into the population in Sadr City and will buy back their guns at the appropriate time (our own security guard said something similar).

Korb noted several other problems facing the country, much of which has yet to even be noted by the mainstream media:

In their video conferences, Maliki and Bush do not really communicate. The official also noted that in his discussions with visiting members of Congress there is really not much dialogue, with both sides giving canned presentations.

The other thing that struck me was the lack of American soldiers patrolling the neighborhoods. In fact, in my whole time here I did not see one American soldier outside the Green Zone.

Most people speaking off the record believe that the insurgents will shift to other areas and lay low for a while in Baghdad.

But if one uses the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and pushes the briefers, a different picture emerges. The place is a mess and despite the almost heroic efforts of some Americans and some Iraqis it is not getting better. One of the consultants told me not to believe anyone who says that the situation is getting better.

The real issue is if the latest surge will work. The most optimistic projection was “maybe temporarily.”

Korb’s multiple meetings with top Iraqi officials and his firsthand experience in Iraq last week provide further evidence that the rosy claims about progress in Iraq are simply a desperate attempt to spin an increasingly unpopular war.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum notes some additional details from Korb’s trip.

The profoundly tragic events at Virginia Tech yesterday have produced sorrow and grief across the country. While this massacre deserves the nation’s attention, it is also worth noting that such grief rips apart Iraqi lives nearly every day in the same manner.

University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole pointed out last night on PBS’s Newshour:

Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.

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Echoing Cole, Iraq Slogger published a post today recounting the brutal scenes of violence that Iraq’s universities have witnessed in recent months:

On Monday, the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting, two separate shooting incidents struck Mosul University, one killing Dr. Talal Younis al-Jelili, the dean of the college of Political Science as he walked through the university gate, and another killing Dr. Jaafar Hassan Sadeq, a professor from the Faculty of Arts at the school, who was targeted in front of his home in the al-Kifaat area, according to Aswat al-Iraq.

In January, Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University sufferred a double suicide bombing in January that killed at least 70 people, including students, faculty, and staff. A month later, another suicide bomber struck at Mustansiriya, killing 40.

Kidnappings of students and faculty are another all-too-common occurrence on Iraq’s campuses. Members of the univerisity community have been abducted and murdered for sectarian reasons, or simply held for ransom. [...]

In January, students reported that violent events had threatened students that attendance rates at Baghdad University had dropped to six percent.

Earlier this month, the Dr. Qais Jawad al-Azzawi, head of the Geneva-based Committee International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors said that 232 university professors were killed and 56 were reported missing in Iraq, while more than 3,000 others had left the country after the 2003 invasion.

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Two weeks ago, the Military Times reported that the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) had decided to stop using the phrase “global war on terror” in committee budget documents.

The decision should not have been controversial: President Bush, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers have all stated that the “global war on terror” is misnamed.

But conservatives saw a chance to smear their political opponents and couldn’t resist. Vice President Cheney said that Skelton exhibited “flawed thinking” and was “dead wrong on this.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) decried the “absurd effort to deny the fact that America is battling terrorism on a global scale.” The Republican National Committee claimed that Skelton was “taking policy advice from Rosie O’Donnell.”

Yesterday, the British Government announced that it would no longer use the phrase “war on terror”

The British government has decided it will no longer use the phrase “War on Terror” because it gives militant groups a shared identity.

International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said the phrase strengthens militant groups by making them feel part of something “bigger,” Sky News reported Monday.

“In the U.K., we do not use the phrase ‘War on Terror’ because we can’t win by military means alone, and because this isn’t us against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives,” he said.

So when will Cheney, Boehner, and the RNC turn their attacks on the British? Despite multiple calls, we’ve received no response from Boehner’s office or the RNC. Maybe our readers will have better luck. Here’s their contact info:

Let us know what you hear in the comments section.

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