The surge is working? Hardly.
By SilentPatriot Friday Aug 08, 2008 9:00pm
A Guardian journalist returns home to Iraq to find that far from what we hear in the US, the surge has produced nothing approaching normalcy or peace, but rather ghettos seething with violence, with nothing but makeshift walls dividing the increasingly hostile warring factions.
"US claims that the military surge is bringing stability to Iraq. By traveling through the heart of Baghdad its easy to see by enclosing the Sunni and Shia populations behind 12ft walls, the surge has left the city more divided and desperate than ever."
Check out parts 2 & 3 of this amazing report. It's undoubtedly the most realistic and candid view of Iraq you will ever see:
(h/t Bill W.)
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Why am I not surprised?
The bottom line is that it is the inflammatory presence of the less than benevolent U.S. military that is exacerbating the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once that fact is acknowledged, then it should become obvious that the only solution is for the United States to [finally] withdraw from those two countries, despite what Obama advocates, as quickly and as rapidly as possible. Otherwise, more Americans soldiers and more innocent Afghanis and Iraqis will end up killed and maimed and crippled for absolutely no justifiable reason whatsoever.
Swell. Thanks.
BushCo, now continuingly glad to be owners of MSM!
Unfortunately, very few people in the states will see, hear, or believe this.
The almighty General Petraeus tells us the "surge" is helping us "make great progress," and the Democrats have allowed themselves to be backed into a corner--if they oppose the "escalation," they are unpatriotic and "oppose the troops."
This report will fall upon deaf ears--and dumb voters.
Erroll @ 2:
This won't happen. Watched Richard Holbrooke on Charlie Rose last night. He's backing Obama--no surprise there. He's advising Obama that the U.S. needs to become more aggressively involved in five neighboring countries--Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan--and needs to have a "unified" policy in dealing with them (unlike Bushco, which he said had 5 different policies for each discrete country). The "aggressively" part didn't sound good to me--and I have to wonder how you can lump all these countries together, with their incredibly different problems, ethnic tensions, cultures (just within each individual country), etc.
That said, McSame is even worse, of course. He has NO cohesive strategic idea--except to bomb any "rogues" back to the Bronze Age.
We're there for the long, long haul.
So the "surge" is not working? I'm shell shocked, what a big surprise. (not)
I saw this at Kos earlier. I knew the "near-victory" claim was horseshit, it's how horrid and cynical the cabal is didn't come home til I saw this video. There is no level of hell severe enough for these bastards. Tears of rage is the best I can do to describe how I feel.
The RE-WRITTEN history of John McSame sez that the surge was working... even BEFORE it was a surge.
HIS SURGE was working back when he needed a military escort and THREE HELICOPTERS overhead to go for a walk in a street market.
His SURGE was "winning the war" even when the Iraqis were killing each other at the rate of a hundred every few days.
Classic NAZI tactic: Tell a LIE enough, and pretty soon it becomes its own reality.
It NEVER mattered what the "conditions on the ground" were. Bush and McCain created their own conditions in their heads, and that's all they needed to do.
The country is ruins, with very little electricity, sanitation plants in ruin, fresh water a precious commodity, and no end to religious strife. Bush has established a Rubbleocracy, and says "it's working."
Well...
invading a random country an ocean and a continent away for no reason at all with no plan whatsoever and counterinsurgency skills that couldn't stop a 3-year-old on a trike plus the general barbarities of war all put together and....
people are shocked???!!!! :eek:
WTF did people think was going to happen?
W has his own street in Georgia.
George W. Bush Avenue leads from the airport to downtown Tbilisi.
It may look like Baghdad when Putin gets finished though.
George Bush and company should be made to watch this. Not that they'd care, but they really should see what they've done, and continue to do to this poor nation.
As long as Earthlings under the delusional idea that there is some otherworldly thing out there responsible for all that can be observed and there is a "reward" after your life, there will be wars and killing. I'm not saying that all killing is over a god, but the majority of large mass killings are. Seeking an afterlife people blow themselves up to kill as many others as possible all in the belief that doing so will bring them closer to their god.Surely the world and its major populations are victims of mass insanity.
RobertD @ 5:
What the flying fuck? Invade 5 countries? With what motherfucking army? Is the US officially off the deep end?
There's no words to describe the stupid in that man's words. Control 5 countries...
I give up. Humanity is officially doomed.
♥♦♣♠BB♥♦♣♠ @ 13:
You dare question our lord and savior Tzetzilopochtli? Enjoy your new era of heartlessness, vile scum of the Outer World!
j/k.
General_Rennenkampf @ 14:
Welcome to the Club
This is the most powerful thing I've seen yet. My son is deployed in Baghdad right now. He can't tell me much I want to know in emails, for the obvious reasons. He knows I'm very very skeptical of the meme "The Surge is working", but can't say anything on the subject.
Please, please someone who has some pull with PBS - Bill Moyers, or someone - this is a story that must be told to everyone, not just those familiar with YouTube. Everyone.
L.A. Confidential @ 16:
Gee...thanks. Do I get a T-shirt?
But seriously, dude what the Hell was that guy smoking? Occupying 5 goddamned countries????!!!! And this is the motherfucking Democrat???? If this is the best the US has to offer...
we're fucked.
General_Rennenkampf @ 15:
Isn't Tzetzilopochtli a south American dish?
♥♦♣♠BB♥♦♣♠ @ 19:
Nope, he's the Mexica version of Satan, Queztalcoatls opposite. Interesting in that Montezuma would be a better choice to run the US than either of the two numbnuts, speaking of the Triple Alliance. At least Montezuma could actually ruin everything in style.
The image of the orphanage children yelling at the end is the most terrifying one of all. Terrifying for them and us.
No hope?
Thank you for posting this. I've been blog whoring this for days. I picked up the original post from the DailyKos. Post these videos everywhere. The truth needs to be told. Maybe KO will pick up on these.
ocinemod @ 21:
Not so long as the guys from across the pond are in Mesopotamia and Afghanistan, nope.
The Iraqis don't hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for destroying their nation. Yankee go home.
Deutschland siegt an alle Fronten!
Cats r Flyfishn @ 24:
Unfortunately...quis custodiet ipsos custodes (referring to the whole US Army-government conglomeration)?
General_Rennenkampf @ 14:
General R.
This is who Obama, the [alleged] "Peace Candidate", is leaning on- Richard Holbrooke- to advise him on how to deal with other countries. And this is who Americans believe will lead them to the Promised Land- Barack Obama- who believes the best way to alleviate the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq is to leave and send more troops to those beleaguered countries. Somehow, I doubt if the Afghanis and the Iraqis will believe that Obama is their best "hope."
While watching these videos, we actually get to look to the right hand side of the screen and see the man responsible for this atrocious war and his fat little piggy war criminal buddy smiling like they were the main jocks at the highschool dance.
Erroll @ 27:
Puh-wha?
No way in Hell this guy's a peace candidate! Bush's two wars looks positively heartwarming compared to the nightmare of trying to hold down Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Afghanistan all at once. We'd kill ourselves, and drive North America into 476, Mk. 2! And this is who Obama has as...an advisor?
At this point, I've officially resigned myself to the US passing into autocracy, preferably a Principate instead of a Fuhrerprinzipate. Because, it seems, no matter who wins, the fall of the United States as we know it will either accelerate, or happen.
Part one should be titled "Apartheid" and Part 2 "Genocide."
The makeshift graveyards from people dumped by the death squads with garbage as grave markers in Part 2 was very disturbing. You know it's been happening but that made it all so depressingly real.
Part 3, with the little boy with the tear-filled eyes made my eyes leak too. :(
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/341370/the_crisis_in_pakistan
The Crisis in Pakistan
Robert Dreyfuss
MountainMan23 @ 31:
Good luck getting India and Pakistan to see eye-to-eye. It would be like convincing Russia and Georgia to get along-oh, wait.
The Surge WORKED! We WON! Why are we still discussing this?
That was a powerful video. What a hellhole the Iraqi people must endure. Desolation and death everywhere and no hope for the future. Especially heartbreaking were the two little boys mourning their dead parents. How very sad.
Dubya's having lots of fun at the Olympics, though! Sickening.
OMFG!!! WHY WON'T BARACK OBAMA ADMIT THE SURGE HAS WORKED?!?!?!???
American Conservative magazine made the point weeks ago that, to the extent things are calmer in Iraq, it's because of "a convergence of events 'on the ground' that had as much to do with paying our former enemies to stop fighting us, the so-called 'Anbar Awakening' that started before The Surge and the sectarian cleansing, as it did with the insertion of 30,000 more US troops into Iraq. Plus, Maliki found a way to ensure that his own militia – the Iraqi Army, plus an assist from the the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade –won the war of competing Shia factions in Basra and elsewhere, and Sadr's milita in Baghdad is still lying low in a likely shrewd political calculation ..."
XuYu @ 33:
Didn't we all see the "mission accomplished" banner in '03? We are victorious!!!!
USA USA USA!!!!!
We all knew it a load of crap, it took an Iraqi to show us it was crap.
This is really the proverbial double-edged sword. On the one hand, debunking the "success of the Surge" mantra would seem to be something to our advantage; on the other hand, if indeed Iraq remains volatile and but a charade of normalcy, then that plays against the probability of Obama succeeding in his 16 month pledge. Or, at least, allows McCain to then emphasize the risk of Obama. In fact, McCain might be able to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time: I'm the Surge, Obama's the Risk. Oh well. I personally at this point in time want to see us out, and the better things are in Iraq, the happier I am because it helps bring that day closer.
Looks like the militias have taken a page out of Hezbollah's book - winning the loyalty of (some of) the people by providing the social services that the official government can't (or won't).
I didn't realize that "pacifying" Bagdad meant compartmentalizing it with 12 ft concrete walls. I shouldn't be surprised - it's like the gated communities that the GOP elite live in, except that in Bagdad the walls keep people in, not out.
But, hey, CNN has *way* more important things to broadcast. Seems like John Edwards has some private problems that need to be made public. After all, "the people" have a right to know...
Regardless of whether the situation improves in Iraq or it doesn't, we should still pull our troops out. Things cannot possibly improve while we occupy it. Iraq will have to resolve the conflict between the Shia, Sunni, and Kurds. This cannot happen as long as Iraqis have to focus on us being there. Further, there is a low incentive; if any, to rebuild because the very people who blew it up in the first place might blow everything up again. The best thing the Iraqi government can do for its people is to draft a resolution demanding the U.S. leave and submit it to the United Nations to support their wishes.
General_Rennenkampf @ 14:
when did holbrooke say the word "invade"?
you are jumping the gun
and this is but one advisor
look, the reality is, bush has left the next administration with a huge pile of shit
we now have a war between russia and georgia
afghanistan is exactly where it was when we first invaded
and the surge is a pile of bs
add to that the severe economic problems of the country
bush is nero
for i do believe we are witnessing the fall of the american empire
Erroll @ 27:
uh...are you saying we should leave afghanistan to al quaida and the taliban??
obama is saying to leave iraq...as we never shouldve been there in the first place, and to really finish the job in afghanistan, which bush dropped the ball on
as your argument is so convoluted, i see no reason to believe that you are just not another freeper sent over to cause probs
McCain always talks about the surge as if reducing the violence was the end purpose. No. It's just a step.
I suggest a metaphor that we surged to paint a room green.
We've delivered the paint but the walls remain as white as ever.
Remember Shock and Awe? Remember the liberated Iraqis gleefully dancing in the streets as the statue of Saddam was victoriously toppled? Remember Osama cornered in Tora Bora?
Coming soon: Remember The Surge?
I don't know, but when your surge largely consists of paying and arming, in great numbers, the very same people who were six months earlier putting devices on the side of the road to kill your troops... what do you really expect will happen when this "surge" ends, whether sooner or later?
Uncle Joe Mccarthy @ 43:
How exactly do you propose to "finish the job"?
Do you think killing as many Afghanis as possible is going to reverse the radicalization of Afghanistan? Or perhaps military intervention wasn't needed in the first place?
I just don't get it with people who think that muscle and brute force is all that's needed to solve any given problem.
Give the Afghanis the tools they need to start some social services, build infrastructure and institutions and they'll walk away from the Taliban in a heart beat. Oppress them, scare their families in the middle of the night because you're looking for a suspect or whatever, and you're going to alienate them and lose their trust.
Our MSM is not worth jacksh*t, when all American citizens are kept from this view of Iraq, there will be no true progress towards peace.
Mr Squirrel @ 45:
Those dancing "Iraqis" where Kurds bussed in from the north by the U.S. military as part of a media circus to show that "They're welcoming us with flowers and candy". Google it.
Just like that mission accomplished BS, neither were true.
Dahr Jamail
Iraq Still in Chaos
http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/08/07/dahr-jamail-6/
canary in a coal mine @ 49:
I guess should have used the tag, eh?
God tells us to build walls.
"If you build it, they won't come".
RobertD @ 5:
divide and conquer tactics (walled up into ghettos) then anybody makes a fuss, US or Maliki's goons go in and silence the critics.
Urban ghettos are just cheapskate concentration camps.
Linda in Oregon @ 17:
The MSM doesnt want to touch this story, its a no win situation for the occupiers as well as the occupied.
If the US and UK pulls out of Iraq while theres still dissident (non Maliki) Iraqis alive, then the real story will leak out,
the strategy is to allow Malaki to build up a strong enough security forces to deal with (exterminate) his domestic opponents,
just before a purge begins then the US/UK forces will pull out.
'Winning' involves classic genocide and forced emigration of Sunnis and dissident Shia.
When the new killings aka 'the final solution' begins in earnest nobody will care about news of old atrocities.
General_Rennenkampf @ 14:
Well NATO forces from half of Europe are busy bees in Afghanistan butchering the locals, and protecting the oil pipeline.
I am sure Europe will loan the US the needed troops for the crusade.
Oil is the stuff of miracles and wondrous political maneuvers.
and dont forget, when the invasions are over and the countries occupied, the oil revenues will recoup the cost
It worked in Iraq...
Imagine for one minute there was a house on your block --- and the mexican drug dealers were using it for business. So the police swarm in, and manage go kill half the bad guys, half get away. How happy would the neighbors be? Oh, forgot to mention, in the process they killed 30 neighbors, including your parents. Now extrapolate this to Iraq, multiply the numbers by a few hundred thousand, add in a lot of greed on everyone's part (thousands of billions of dollars of oil at play), mix in all the religious and tribal conflicts, the years of depravation under Saddam, and now tell me there would likely be some other outcome other than the one the Guardian presents. The pure unadulterated childish fantasies of the NEOCONS makes alice in wonderland read like a biography.
Ok, those videos hurt
The USA lives in the bubble of its own deceit.
You think we'll ever hear about this reality on the MSM "news"?
You think we'll ever hear about this reality in the upcoming campaign "debates"...??
The USA lives in the bubble of its own deceit.
Uncle Joe Mccarthy @ 42:
Rome fell under Romulus Augustulus in the West, not Nero. He was only the last of the Julio-Claudians. In the East, it fell under Constantine XI only a few decades before Columbus.
many Americans, McCain and the Bushites don't care. As long as they can say our troops aren't dying then the surge has worked. Make no mistake here either, they don't really care about Americans dying. The dead and maimed American and Iraqi people were an acceptable price to pay to get one man, Saddam. Their goal with the surge was to placate enough people so they, McCain and the Bushites, could slough off a little bit of the stench of failure.
So the surge has worked for McCain and the Bushites.
Not being from either party, i really don't understand why you dems don't put out the blazing fire called "the success of the surge" notion...Obama should take this on head first and not be afraid of being called unpatriotic or not supporting the troups...how can we let ANYONE call anything a SUCCESS when we still have soldiers and civilians being KILLED...sure i will agree there are LESS DEATHS than before..but to call anything a success when people are still killed goes beyond my imagination...perhaps we should ask those that have been killed what they think of this SUCCESS...for me one big component of success would be NO DEATHS...
Come on you democrats...get off your asses and put out this false notion about success...this is an incorrect use of an adjective that doesn't really fit the description or observation...and I expect we will hear about this way more in the days to come...I am sick of hearing it...put to rest this false belief called success..
I join you guys in wishing for the good old days of villages gassed by the government of Iraq, the fellowship of Hussein with the good old boys like Zarqawi, and the kite flying democrats in Baghdad, not to mention the fun invasion of Iran and Kuwait. Ahhh , the warm memories, I am sure you all drink a glass of wine now and then to the old times.
But seriously, I read the above comments with amazement, does no one here have a knowledge of anything beyond the superficial? Or anything that occurred before the last five years? The level of ignorance and narrow mindeness you demonstrate is breathtaking.
Warsaw - November, 1940
http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/warsaw%20ghetto.html
Retards.
Terrible,
Yours is by far the best comment of the day. Thanks for the referral to the website.
General_Rennenkampf @ 14:
Richard Holbrooke on Charlie Rose was talking about DIPLOMACY, aggressively use of diplomacy.
Go to Rose's site and watch the program. Also note they discussed that while Holbrook is a supporter now, he is NOT an adviser. The talked about the fact he wasn't invited to some big meeting of Obama's advisers but then Holbrook said he couldn't have come even if invited because of a prior commitment.
Rose asked if Obama asked you for advice what would you say which is when he started talking about diplomacy. Yes aggressive diplomacy which is not like Bush's sending one guy to one meeting with Iran.
Jeesh, either you are passing along bad info or you are deliberately distorting Holbrook's comments and trying to smear YOUR implications onto Obama.
go to http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/08/08/2/a-conversation-with-richar...
It should be available in a couple of days.
And what this attempted bullshit have to do with the present reality of Iraq?
Folks, Obama is accused of being weak on defense; now this ass hat is trying to say he's a warmonger. Don't you guys realize that smears on both sides kinda cancels out?
Why should we hear about body bags and deaths," Barbara Bush said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003. "Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
This is the person who was supposed to teach GW how about compassion and caring. Any questions now?
yes!! this backs up our claims that America is evil and the cause of all the worlds problems!! People come on there were not nearly enough references to America being like like nazis or Bush wanting to kill people for money!! (he was already rich but hey we need someone to hate right?!)
The surge didn't work!! The war is Lost!!
WE SURRENDER!!!
I watched all 3 videos and can't stop crying.
All I can think of is that fucking Toby Keith song "Proud to Be an American" and how disgusted I am with all of these people joyously singing it, berating those of us who have the intestinal fortitude to watch these videos, analyze the truths of reality, and hang our heads in shame for being American. I don't want to make 8 year old boys orphans. It embarrasses me that some of my countrymen do.
America is fucked up. McCain will fuck it even further.
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