Obey: Violence is subsiding in Iraq because "running out of people to kill"

The Hill: Terrorists are ‘running out of people to kill,’ says Obey
By Mike Soraghan
November 06, 2007

If violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents “are running out of people to kill,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said Monday. “There are fewer targets of opportunity,” Obey said in a speech to the National Press Club.

Obey was responding to a question about reports touted by Republicans that security is improving in Iraq and that President Bush’s “surge” strategy is working. He stressed that military success has not led to political reconciliation. “The issue has never been military,” Obey said. “The issue has always been political improvement.”

As the House’s top appropriator, Obey has his hands on the nation’s purse strings, giving him a significant say on the war in Iraq.

In his speech Monday, he stuck by his pledge not to approve any more money for the war until President Bush changes course on Iraq. He also offered a spirited defense of a new surtax to pay for the Iraq war, admitting that he knew it wouldn’t pass when he offered his support for the plan. But he said it highlighted the fact that Bush has loaded the cost of the war onto the national debt while pushing tax cuts tilted to the wealthy....

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/terrorists-are-running-out-of-people-to-kill-says-obey-2007-11-06.html

the surge is not working

others, I'm sure.

Or perhaps it's because Petraeus is cozying up to whatever group, Sunni or Shiite - and providing them arms, that will ally with the US for this moment disregarding the FACT that these alliances are only temporary measures for the Iraqis and as soon as it's in their best interest, the Iraqis will disregard such alliance to pursue their own (violent) agendas. And the arms we have given these groups will come back to haunt us, again.

At least he recognize that there is no political progress going on in Iraq even as the violence decreases. The surge was supposed to be buying the Iraqi government time to get it's shit together. Yeah, right.

Car-bombing, bullet-to-the-back-of-the head, death squad patrols, "disappearance", power-drill surgery, de-Sunnification, de-Shiitization, disKurdsion -- they've worked their magic.

The insurgents don't need to blow quite so many innocents up because the partition of the the country is well under way. They didn't have to wait for us to realize what a total waste our effort was, they just went ahead and ripped the place apart under our feet.

Sad to say, crazed jihadists, petty criminals, and small-time religio-hoods have proved themselves smarter than the entire American establishment.