The Surge is Working!
According to former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, not so much:
When it comes to Iraq, the surge is a great success, right? Well, according to Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister, that depends on what you mean by “success”.
In a briefing before members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday, Allawi answered questions from members of he subcommittee on international organizations, human rights, and oversight. When asked by Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, for Allawi’s “assessment of of what’s come of the surge,” Allawi all but said, not much.
Reminding Rohrabacher that the original objective of the surge was to create a safe environment for a process of national reconciliation, Allawi said, “Now, militarily, the surge has achieved some of its goals. Politically, I don’t think so.”
Allawi rattled off a laundry list of perils that still confront the Iraqi people: internal displacement of large numbers of people, millions of refugees outside Iraq, security forces he described as sectarian militias dressed in national uniforms, no enforcement of the national constitution, which he described as a “divisive” document.
The former prime minister, who is now a member of the Iraqi parliament, also alleged that the process known as “deBaathification” is “being used to punish people.” Originally designed to purge Saddam Hussein’s loyalists from the military and security forces, Allawi said the process has become politicized and can be used against virtually anybody, since Saddam Hussein’s “Baath party ruled for 35 years, and every individual had to join…”
“So, if you measure the surge from a military point of view, it has succeeded,” Allawi said. “But I don’t think this was the [prime] objective, because soon you will have reversals. Security has not prevailed, and the key element in security is reconciliation, and building national institutions for the country. If this does not happen, then the surge will go in vain.”
Which is what most of us who opposed the surge have been saying all along. The surge is only “succeeding” according to a definition of “success” that dramatically moves the goal posts from its originally stated objectives.
Link via Eric Martin at Obsidian Wings.
WTF, the surge is working great. Opposition to the occupation on the homefront has decreased dramatically. Now we can get down to the business of defeating the Iraqi political will to self-determination, and privatize their wealth.
You wouldn’t want to dishonor the service of those brave Marines that guarded the Ministry of Oil while ignoring the most devastating cultural losses due to looting since the crusaders attacked their fellow christians in Constantinople in 1204, would you?
Why do you hate America?
McComplain’t campaign says “The Senator was always in favor of un-shitting the bed. Barack Obama thinks that should be left the soverign people who have to sleep in that bed.”
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