Security Gains from 'Surge' Backsliding

Source: Washington Independent

Security Gains From 'Surge' Backsliding
New Iraq Security Statistics Show Uptick in Explosions

By Spencer Ackerman 01/31/2008

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Bush’s speech was one of the more restrained descriptions of the surge—last year’s decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq. In recent weeks, politicians and commentators have moved beyond saying the surge is working to the blunter declaration that the surge "worked," full-stop. Bill Kristol, declaring Gen. David Petraeus his Man of the Year, wrote in a Weekly Standard editorial, "We are now winning the war. " In his New York Times column, Kristol challenged the Democratic candidates to "say the surge worked." On Jan. 10, the first anniversary of the surge, the GOP presidential front-runner, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), co-wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined, flatly, "The Surge Worked."

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But even accepting that lowered standard, there are growing signs of backsliding in Iraq—even before the surge brigades depart in July.

Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala provinces, the hotbeds of the insurgency, have seen a return of high-profile suicide bombing. The Sunni insurgency, all but decimated in the imagination of the surge advocates, has demonstrated something of a surge of its own in recent weeks. Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala provinces, the hotbeds of the insurgency, have seen a return of high-profile suicide bombing. Prominent collaborators with the U.S., like the so-called "Concerned Local Citizens" militias, have been targeted for death by insurgents and terrorists. "Of late, though, as you’ve been seeing, is certainly an increase in the number of suicide events that occur with individuals, mostly with a suicide vest wrapped around their waist," Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, said in a blogger conference call last week.

Iraq security statistics over the past 13 weeks, obtained exclusively by The Washington Independent, tell the tale. In Baghdad, improvised-explosive device (IED) detonations explosions in Baghdad have ticked up slightly to 131 in January from 129 in December—and the last week of January is not included in these latest figures. Countrywide, there was an increase in IED explosions to 2,291 in December from 1,394 in November, followed by a dip to 1,270 in the first three weeks of January. But the week ending on January 25 saw seven suicide explosions Iraq-wide, the most since the week ending Dec. 21, 2007.



Read more: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/security-gains-from

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USA has the capability to wipe a country off the map, but cannot fight hand to hand on the ground

And they certainly have no idea to "win hearts and minds"

The USA is in danger of facilitating it's own downfall, as happened when the Soviet Union overextended its finances and credit to keep a war going(Afghanistan) that they had no hope of winning -

So it went belly-up . . .

USA is following in the Soviet Union's footsteps.

Couldn't happen to a nicer country.

Sorry...lost my head for a minute there. :)

But I have no doubt they think that way...

The surge worked. End of story. No more looking at things. It's already worked, and Kristol and McCain called "tap, tap, no tapbacks."