Rolling Stone: The Myth Of The Surge
By Logan Murphy Wednesday Mar 05, 2008 4:39pm
Via Rolling Stone:
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence. Read on...
This article by Nir Rosen is a long read, but it's well worth it. Rosen describes in detail how the situation on the ground in Iraq is tenuous at best, a powder keg ready to ignite at any given moment. We haven't been getting much honest or detailed reporting from Iraq in quite some time and this article unveils much of what many of us have assumed for some time. The successes of the surge amount to trapping people in run down neighborhoods turned to rubble, imprisoning thousands and creating millions of refugees. Freedom is on the march...
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That's funny. NPR spent 45 minutes this afternoon telling us how WELL this was going...
Oh, and fristish.
The Rolling Stone picks up some excellent, in depth articles on both politics and Iraq. I dont read it that often but when I do notice they have some real penetrating insights into both subjects.
I probably wont read this one for a few days as too much "surge" news is incredibly depressing (and already have my daily quota met).
Democrats should seize on this. I'm sick and tired hearing the Repugs tell everybody how successful this surge is. I hope it knocks McCain's chace of winning the election in 2008. It's time to bring our troops home. Enough is enough!
"We haven’t been getting much honest or detailed reporting from Iraq"
We have YET to see any honest news on the subject.
If a media report on the Iraq War does not have a photo of slaughtered children or GIs- it isn't news.
.
Going swimmingly... in cold blood!
.
Bently @ 5:
As opposed to the hearts , flowers and candy pics they were rewarding our troops with that never occurred , nor was ever going to ; contrary to the bullshit emanating from the Chimpy administration ?
And the other side of the 'success' of the 'surge'.
In large areas, there's nobody left to kill. They've either been murdered or fled.
Yup. It's really worked beautifully.
.
Like swimming in a blood bath.
.
the likelihood this Iraq thing works it self out?
1 - NO HOPE
2 - BOB HOPE
please choose
And to think this article comes out on the heel of today's violence. What about Afghanistan? Getting up in the morning is getting harder and harder.
Another Bush management success.
NPR is the biggest sell-out of the media lot. I'll not donate again until the shills are fired. Fuck 'em. Traitors.
Bently @ 5:
Oh yeah, right, here we go - one of the "there is no good (read: "honest")news being reported" whiners. You know why there is no good/honest news? Because there isn't any. We invaded a sovreign nation, slaughtered it's citizens, and unleashed a civil war which will probably make Kosovo or Ruanda look like a minor barroom dustup. Baghdad was onece one of the most modern cities in the Middle East - now it looks like Belfast at the height of THE TROUBLES. So, you wanna know why there is no "good" news to report? BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY!
bush spends more on his ranch in crawford, than he does
for anyone in need. what a greedy fucking bastard fascist bush is.
blogs are great but i think articles as in depth as this one (I picked up a copy after i saw this post to read it) seem to be out of the blogosphere's range, at least for now. thanks for the link c & l.
Pretty much says we are paying people to not attack American...uh... Coalition troops.
All fine and dandy until the money stops flowing. They are buying gangs in Iraq just like they are buying us with the Spring tax rebates.
Bently @ 5:
Look at the numbers dickhead. When was the last DAY that Iraqis were not killed? How about an entire week?
From the US perspective, I don't think US troops in Iraq have any alternative but to arm all of the various factions. It buys the troops time until we can withdraw [the sooner the better], and that buys them some momentary protection.
From an Iraqi perspective: It's absolutely nuts! And the Bushies and Mr. "100 Years in Iraq" want to continue spending $billions$ every day to build concrete ghettos and arm thugs.
What would happen if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq immediately? What will happen next a neocon might ask. This is exactly what would happen - The Shia tell Iran "Thanks for the help, now leave. Get out of our country". That is the part the neocons can't seem to understand. Everybody says that Iran will take over Iraq. Or they will have so much influence that Iraq will essentially become part of Iran. Well that will NOT happen. Iraq is Iraq. They don't want to be told what to do by Iran. Remember when Saddam invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia let the U.S. stage in their country to throw Saddam out of Kuwait. And Egypt helped the coalition in that war. Both those countries are Sunni. Saddam was Sunni. In fact Egypt harbored an exiled Saddam many years ago but Egypt helped throw Saddam out of Kuwait. Being from the same sect did not help Saddam. Saddam didn't listen to Saudi Arabia when it came to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is Sunni like Saddam. Why would Iraq listen to any other country? Why would they let Iran tell them what to do? So you see that just because part of Iraq and Iran are the same sect you cannot assume that Iraqi Shia will let Iranian Shia tell them what to do. As far as the Kurds go they have it figured out. They're having BBQ on Saturday nights (probably). And the Sunni? They will have to figure out how to have their own area. Joe Bidden knows how this will work out. Most of them have left the country anyway. It will work out without us. And Al Qaeda? you may ask. Well the Iraqis will kick their sorry butts out in a matter of hours after the U.S. leaves. You can bet your bottom $ that no Iraqi will be told what to do by some Al Qaeda nut who all of Iraq hate. All you will see of Al Qaeda is the dust they kick up as they run for Afgahnistan. Just like they will do to the Iranians, "Thanks for the help. Now get the hell out." The neocons don't get it or they want this war to continue for financial reasons. You know this. I know this. 82% of the U.S. knows this. Getting out is the dilemma. Remember Iraq was better off with Saddam. I've said it many times. Nobody wanted to say it at the time but now everybody knows it is true. Let's pack it up and leave tomorrow. You are either with me or... um... ah... won't get fooled again.
Yes, it's such a shame the media can't find more stories about
bombed outnewly painted buildingsin a warto report.Marcus Aurelius @ 13:
They didn't "sell out". The Chimpy administration/Repug congress, during the height of their power, forced them to the right by threatening to cut all their funding. So, it was more like a starve-out.
Your assessment still stands, however. They have become a Prius-liberal feel-good news outlet.
The day I saw Juan Williams on FauxNews was the day I realized I could never trust any media, anywhere. That's extremely depressing, as I really enjoyed knowing stuff.
BTW, the surge is working. Our objective is to reduce/subjugate the Iraqi population and take control of their natural resources. Every day there's fewer of them and... less fewer of us. Just sit back and appreciate that you're on the non-lethal end of the gun, for now.
The l o n g article is well worth the read, tho very depressing and disturbing.
I had not, previously, really understood the use of the term "briding" Shiite's and
Sunni's so that they would not have daily conflicts, but now, after reading this
Rolling Stone article, it comes quite clear to me that we are indeed using bribes
to keep things under control as best we can...not only w/monies but with arms
and ammunition, much of which "mysterioulsy" disappears frequently. Many of the
people of Iraq are living under awful conditions...in isolated, zoned off areas where
conditions are unbelievable. How they continue to survive, after the SURGE, and
want to continue to survive I cannot comprehend. This is an perfect example of
how badly, even after 4 years in that country, we have screwed things up..and
in fact, conditions may get even worse inasmuch as so many of the native Iraqis
are tired of living under conditions dictated by the U.S. of A. Shameful to say the
least.
Not that this matters at all, but i think the photo is a setup piece...the camo looks wrong and I am pretty sure that is a AK-47, not an M-16) in the soldier's hands. Still, good article.
I actually wrote a post on this and other Iraq articles recently. Everyone should read Rosen's piece, and reporters especially should be grilling the Bush administration on it. The Bush administration has bribed its way to a short-term ceasefire in Baghdad, and in doing so, has undermined the Iraqi central government whose legitimacy is essential to creating long-term stability. In other words, they've prevented the political reconciliation the surge was supposed to allow (their purported goal) to sell the illusion of the surge working (their actual goal).
Ironic, but there was never any suicide bombers
in Iraq before Bush invaded the country.
Son of Liberty @ 22:
Nah-h...Federal funding for NPR is a pittance. They could lose that and continue without batting an eye. Their true masters are a lot more insidious than the government, their true masters are big corporate business, Archer Daniels Midland, Kellogg Brown and Root, Lockheed, Haliburton, and so on. NOW you see why they are truly a useless source of real news.
If you follow the links to the photos, you will find the caption to the photo:
The other photos show pretty much the same scenes and mixed sets of soldiers from U.S. or Iraqi formations.
Yeah, no civil war, no millions of war refugees, no tens of thousands of uncounted dead and wounded, no al Qaeda....
I note that this article by Rosen in the Rolling Stone covers a period of time from
late Dec. 07, thru Jan. 08 and into early Feb. 08, so he spent considerable time
in the region to obtain information and write his article. Has any MSM person
been sent to and spent even a week in Iraq to cover the "Surge"??? The slanted
coverage given by the MSM as to the success of the surge is disgraceful/dishonest/
and deceitful. The American public is NOT being given the truth and facts by
anyone associated w/CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, Faux or other "entertainment"
news channels. And equally disturbing is fact that "our" representatives in Congress
are either not interested or too f...... lazy to try and obtain accurate and truthful
information.
samdog @ 24:
So, if its the crack, highly professional Iraqi Army, how far will U.S. troops be behind them?
Captain Kangaroo @ 20:
Your thoughts have been echoed by none other than Rosen himself, one of the most incisive independent journalists on the scene today, who said essentially said the same thing in The Atlantic in late 2005. He had also wrote in that same issue that the Iraqis were placing burning tires around the necks of suspected Al Qaeda members, proving how much the Iraqis hate and loath the foreign jihadists. Both the Democrats and the Republicans must be aware of this but still the two major parties continue to resist the idea of an immediate withdrawal from that abattoir in Iraq, thus ensuring that more American troops will end maimed and crippled for not justifiable reason whatsoever. All the major candidates are thus propagating the lie that they are supporting the troops.
See...I told you Mission Accomplished!!!
Chris Hedges: The Calm Before the Conflagration
In which Hedges describes what will happen when the US stops paying MA$$IVE bribes to all the factions.
In simplest terms - when/if the US money (not the troops) leaves, all hell breaks lose.
It's a powder keg set to go off shortly after BushCo leaves office - unless the next administration either continues to fund the bribery or finds a multilateral solution no one has thought of yet.
yeah, Like this isn't the outcome Bushco was going for in the first place.
Doggiebobo @ 30:
Maybe McCain can go on a shoppiong trip and report back.
Hedges has it wrong. All hell has been breaking lose since we invaded. We created the conditions for the sectarian violence. It didn't exist prior to Bush's war. And lots of people have already died as a result. [But we don't count them.] So withdrawal may not increase the violence, because things are already bad.
And, as far as a multilateral solution, the current administration won't even talk with Iraq's neighbors, who have a stake in Iraq's future and the security of their own borders.
P.D. @ 4:
The reply will be something like: "Why does the Democrat party hate freedom?" And if Obama goes against McCain the subject will very quickly turn to flag lapel pins.
And nothing will change.
as chomsky put it, theres no one left to kill. but don't forget we are bribery. we're now paying them (with weapons and money) to not kill us.
The "Surge" = The Lie
Let's face it, this is not a "war" -- Saddam has been executed after all. It is an American Occupation.
It's about the OIL, stupid.
jane @ 40:
Damn straight. Why do you think Cheney went to all that trouble to not reveal what was said during his Energy Policy meetings - they were planning how to take over Iraq oil.
If this is what success looks like, what the hell would failure be? Wait, I know, no Production Sharing Agreements for oil companies. And what a horrible failure that would be.
Captain Kangaroo @ 20:
I would agree except for the tiny issue of Maliki having spent time in Iran.....
However, hopefully Maliki would grow a spine and do unto Iran what Wahhabis did unto Saddam.
Erroll @ 32:
Captain Kangaroo @ # 20
A good preentation of politics in the Middle East. Its been like that for 4000 years. So why do western powers want to get involved in a quagmire that you wouldn't want to stick a screw driver into?. The batting average for western powers doing this is about 0.050 and right now American taxpayers are going to pay for this recent debacle. In the 19th century Britain was ' Surging' in Afghanistan and Iran. The Brits lost a lot of soldiers , and nothing came of it. Go read that story . After WW I the British were " surging " in Iraq. The Brits lost a lot of soldiers and nothing came of it . Go read that story. If the 50's and 60's America was ' surging ' in Iran , in another way.What happened ? The Great Game continues. Any guesses on the ' End Game'?
Son of Liberty @ 22:
It's far worse than that, but have you ever DRIVEN a Prius?
A little pokey at the getaway, but a surprisingly well-built, good handing vehicle which is why it sells so well (it's not just the fuel efficiency).
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
Whatever they say is almost always proven to be a lie.
This is why we should withdraw, stop the money drain on our economy, and tell the republicans to sit down and shut the fuck up.
They had their chance.
You say: "The successes of the surge amount[s] to trapping people in run down neighborhoods turned to rubble, imprisoning thousands and creating millions of refugees...."
I keep trying to tell you, it ain't a surge, it's a splurge.
Even before 9/11, the administration had invasion on their minds. They had everything in place to profit from such a conflict at the cost of thousands of American lives and many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why do you suppose all of those contracts for privitizing the military went to crony corporations that didn't even have to bid competitively? (We saw the same wasteful corruption mirrored in Katrina, with millions and millions unaccounted for. )
We saw Cheney's so-called "blind trust" swell with the rising fortunes of his former employer, Halliburton, and its subsidiary KBR. An ex-CIA crony headed up Blackwater after making all manner of under-the-table and behind-the-scenes deals with other White House cronies. The new Baghdad embassy is costing taxpayers $750 million and counting. A police training building was so ineptly constructed it literally weeped feces.
It's a splurge, not a surge. The longer they keep this fucking war going, the richer the cronies get. Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld are all war criminals. We should get congress to authorize extraordinary rendition and see to it that all four of the bastards are jetted to The Hague to face justice before the International War Crimes Tribunal. Although I do not believe in capital punishment, I think sometimes exceptions might be made. It's justified in this case, considering how many people Arbusto murdered as governor of Texas.
ktuhery @ 41:
My take on this was never to take over the Iragi oil , just to raise the price by 400% .
All sides are just "Keeping their powder dry" for the time being. They were not defeated, did not go away and their hatred of us and each other still remains strong than ever. The Unsurge is not a success, it's just a break in the action before all hell breaks loose.
Rolling Stone: The Myth of Relevance
The US population has increased by about 50% since Wenner launched the mag, but circulation just hasn't kept up.
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