The Generals' Hagiographer Helps Iraq Withdrawal Pushback
By Steve Hynd Monday Feb 09, 2009 6:30am
Thomas Ricks on MTP decribes Petraus "lecturing" Obama - and admits the real winner of the war is Iran. Thanks, Heather!
David at C&L Video Cafe has already noted this Sunday how Thomas Ricks, the Washington Post's Pentagon correspondent, said on Meet The Press that "the surge succeeded militarily, failed politically" but added that "Iraqis, many of them, used the breathing space we created to step backwards to become more sectarian, become more divided." That quick addition is a convenient way to blame only Iraqis for what was widely anticipated before the surge and was put forward as the best reason not to waste more blood and treasure in Bush's sandpit by those that believed Iraqis had to confront their own problems in order to have any motivation to solve them. He also said that Afghanistan is loseable, but Pakistan isn't. (Pakistan being where the US has propped up a two-faced military dictator and lately a two-faced civilian puppet for his generals over the last eight years.)
There's none of that really controversial except to those determined to declaim "mission accomplished" at every opportunity, but in a long article for the WaPo today, Ricks diverges off into revisionist history and at times pure hagiography as he calls General Raymond Odierno the "dissenter who changed the war" and hands Odierno all the credit for thinking up the surge that is such a victory for Ricks - except when he admits it isn't.
Now, President Obama, an opponent of the war and later the surge, must deal with the consequences of the surge's success -- an Iraq that looks to be on the mend, with U.S. casualties so reduced that commanders talk about keeping tens of thousands of soldiers there for many years to come.
The most prominent advocates of maintaining that commitment are the two generals who implemented the surge and changed the direction of the war: Odierno and David H. Petraeus, who replaced Casey in 2007 as the top U.S. commander in Iraq and became the figure most identified with the new strategy. But if Petraeus, now the head of U.S. Central Command, was the public face of the troop buildup, he was only its adoptive parent. It was Odierno, since September the U.S. commander in Iraq, who was the surge's true father.
It's ridiculous cheerleading, mainly sourced to neoconservative and real Surge co-architect Gen. Jack Keane. Over at FDL, emptywheel has a comprehensive takedown of Rick's article, which is an excerpt from Rick's forthcoming book:
[H]e mentions neither the Iraq Study Group nor the AEI-Kagan plan for the surge. Silence about the former leaves out the entire context of the decision to push a surge--not least Saudi pressure not to adopt the ISG's recommendations. And silence about the latter leaves out a critical force in the generation of the plan; plus, Ricks describes the decision as happening shortly after December 19, after the AEI-Kagan plan was already released.
...Odierno's decision to push for a surge probably post-dates Keane's lobbying for it. Not only does Woodward describe Keane--having already discussed the issue with Newt Gingrich and written up a fully-developed plan on a yellow legal pad--presenting his concerns to Rummy on September 19. But Ricks suggests that Keane already had well-developed doubts about US strategy by the time Odierno spoke to him.
...Woodward places a preference for a surge to before Odierno was lobbying for it, a decision on it for the same time his lobbying hit high gear (and still before he went back to Iraq), and a final decision before Ricks describes a final decision.
Ricks, however, is glad to repeat Odierno's belief that Odierno created the surge out of whole cloth - a version quite a few others, including Col H.R. McMaster who had set the scene with a "mini-surge" in Tal Afar well before all this, might have an issue with.
Odierno appears to have spun Ricks as effectively as spin-meister General Petraeus did when Ricks was writing "Gamble", which isn't too surprising - these generals are adept at using the massive military PR machine to their advantage. And reporters do have a tendency to get too close to, and be too gentle with, their sources - who in turn tend to cut off access to hostile questioners.
But revisionism and cheerleading aside, there's a wider story going on here. Ricks said on MTP today that 2009 will be "a surprisingly tough year" in Iraq - which is again something that's already been said by anti-occupation writers - as Petraeus' tactic of bribing insurgents not to attack breaks down in the face of the Awakening's greivances. Yet conservatives and their pet generals see that as a reason to stay, keep troops high, and spend even more blood and treasure. The cynic might suppose that there's an entirely mercenary reason for that.
Faced with Obama's intention to withdraw the bulk of US troops and keep the remainder out of direct combat, there's a strong pushback from within the military and pro-war conservative groups. That pushback is centered around Gen. Keane - military and then political patron to both Petraeus and Odierno - who has assembled a cadre of serving and retired generals to work alongside neocon think-tankers in a PR campaign designed to weaken Obama's resolve. The point man is General Odierno, who may not even realise he's potentially a sacrifice - with Obama forced to fire him for continually questioning his Commander-in-Chief - thus providing the news scandal that can force the issue to the top of the media's agenda this Spring. Ricks, however, is almost certainly aware he's been primed to further that pushback.
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That the neocons and the republicans got us into this mess.
It is even more of a shame that they have murdered so many people in the process.
One thing for sure the neocons and republicans are the ones to blame for all this and I hope thay get to pay and pay dearly for all the misery they have caused!
We overthrew a Sunni minority dictator in a Shiite majority state, and Iran - the Shiite theocracy next door - is the big winner?
Damn, Tommy. Glad you're here to tell us WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW.
Iraq pull out talk is still a side show, don't you think?
To pull out means we have molded the mid- East to our liking. It also means we have no worries about Iran (which like Iraq are completely unjustified)
Whether or not we are going to attack Iran, we will keep a large troop presence in Iraq for, oh I don't know, between 100 and 1000 years. People need to stop thinking of Iraq as a country and start thinking about it more like a base of operations.
Juxtapose that quote with our apparent military strategy, and it's clear the Bushies hoped to 'fix' Iraq, then Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and, wow, suddenly the Middle East is the new land of freedom and democracy!
Except for the fact that we mistook our ideology for the reality on the ground. (The map is not the territory.)
The war was a cherry picked catastrophic failure based on lies against a nation that did not attack us using 911 as justification that has cost the lives of 4500 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It has helped to busted the US treasury, depleted the US military, alienated our allies, emboldened our enemies and trashed America's moral standing in the world.
But the surge was a success!
Is it just me or are most agencies not cooperating with Obama's stated will? We have the DEA, the department of justice, the CIA and the military pulling in a different directions.
What happened to following orders?
"...with U.S. casualties so reduced that commanders talk about keeping tens of thousands of soldiers there for many years to come."
First we are told that we have to keep troops there because the violence is so terrible, now we are told that we have to keep troops there because violence isn't too bad.
Secondly, the 'surge' repeatedly gets credit for a drop in violence, but not mentioned were the Sunni's decision to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq, preceding the 'surge; al Sadr's self-imposed cease fire; and ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods in Baghdad, assisted by the US.
I keep expecting Glinda to appear in her magic bubble and titter, "Are you true propaganda or false propaganda?"
Darth Cheney and his minion were counting on Iran being strengthened the whole time. It makes them more reckless and ultimately provides an easier sell for the second phase of the invasion.
100 years wouldn't be enough to extricate ourselves from this catastrophe. That is exactly what they wanted in the first place; a forever war.
The Forever War by Joe Haldemann.
(Haldemann wrote a sequel, Forever Peace, but I haven't read that.)
...have no intention of ever leaving Iraq. We've spent billions to build huge PERMANENT military bases to be used for the next "phases" as you put it. The current meltdown of the financial system and the transfer of wealth from the masses to the few, is also one of the steps in their move toward a new world order.
Plus, ya gotta know we're in deep do-do when Barry sends Kissinger as an emissary to have talks with Putin.
But it is a fact, that the surge helped, it is not the only reason but helped reduce violence and to defeat the insurgency, militias and terrorists. Other important credit goes to the awakening councils and Al-Maliki national platform and battles against Al-Sadr militias and against Badr Brig.
I don't know where "[Iraqis] used the breathing space we created to step backwards to become more sectarian, become more divided." had come from.
What I see is that sectarian violence and division became less not more. See the awakening councils (Sunnis of Anbar) working with the Iraqi government, Sunni parties are part of the government. Shiite sectarian religious parties lost big in the recent election.
I see progress in Iraq right now, but how stable and how much it means to the US, no one can predict. but that's Iraq unpredictable since 1958
Cut the military in half, shut the damned military bases worldwide, bring home the troops and teach them to build levees and bridges...let's see, what else, oh, yeah, close down the star wars thingy that Russia doesn't like.
And fire any military brass that doesn't like it.
That's what I say Jo all other points and discussion aside, show me the money we have to take on Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan VIII, Jordan and friends.
Shoot in a effort to bring democracy to the United States, we've deployed several regimens here!
what about the base in Japan, WTF do we need a base in japan for. We have the means to kill any thing in the world from the US. why do we need vbases all over the world. bring them home, put them to work on our Borders, on the Docks.
was a Democratic people with elections Befor the US and UK fucked it up by potting a Dicktator in charge. rember the Shaw.
Another thing with this shit the SURGE. WTF, when the bush war shitheads PAYED the assholes NOT to fight the GI's, that is why they quit. What I would like to know is "Where is the 12 billion dollars" bush sent to Iraq. shit for brains repugs said it was ok then but now they want to cut American from getting help,fuck them.
Actually, I could get behind an invasion of Saudi Arabia.
1. It truly would be a war that paid for itself.
2. We would finally get the bastards that attacked us on 9/11
3. We would achieve independence from foreign oil.
that the saudis best friend is no longer in power I think that would be a good idea.
Really I mean I don't mean to advocate war or violence, but it seems if this country really needs to get its war on, we might as well invade the right country.
It boggles the imagination. The most stunning example of "the big lie" ever.
By the way, does no one else remember that one of the strongest contributing factors to the downfall of the Soviet Union was its entanglement with Afghanistan?
Russia went broke.
that diptshit congerss man from texas Who got millions for the telaban to fight off the USSR. thanks asshole, thats more American tax dollars down the drain. Now we are spending MORE american tax dollars to fight them.
First off, a surge is for a shorter period of time, what we have here was a new deployment.
The words biggest stimulus package followed by the worlds longest surge.
What has happened to our vernacular?
It's been Viagrad.
on the number of people in Iraq. from what I have read is that there is about 60 to 70 thousand hired killers in Iraq, blackwater and others. so when the News? says we have 140,000 troops in Iraq, again they are putting out the repug bullshit again.the numbers are more like 190,000 to 210,000.
The Partners in Propaganda status of the media for Team BushCo continues unabated. On every front. ABC Nightly News last night, for what should be an informative fact-based dialogue on economic policy offers Nobel Prize Winning Economist Krugman and noted pundit gasbag George Will.
How dumb do they think America is?
Do the media want to join the remaining Republican Rump in their Whine Club? I understand the next meeting is in the men's room at the Minneapolis Airport.
8 years. Yes there are bumb americans out there. they all watch that fat ass bimbought, hanadie, He-she ann colter. the TV, and radios are not news, they are repus shit slingers. rember back when if you were not for bushs war, YOU were anti-american. now Obama, not in 30 days and you got assholes like limbitch saying, i hope he fails. WTF is with the American people who voted for Obama and not doing something.
Seems this would be the general's ideal hagiographer:
http://taylorville.sunk.org/images/jean_schmi...
She looks as confused as our leadership.
...is exactly why our founding fathers set our government the way they did.
you'll no sooner convince odierno to leave iraq than you'll pry a rabid pit bull off a mutton chop.
odierno and petraeus both should probably be forced to submit to psychological evaluations, and both should be asked point blank if they hold end-timer fundamentalist beliefs.
that should be a litmus test. if you believe the end of the world is inevitible, you can't run the military, because your actions, whether intentionally or not, tend to wind up creating self-fulfilling prophecy.
obama's probably going to have to start sacking some of these guys. truman sacked macarthur; lincoln sacked a whole slew of generals who lied and wouldn't obey until lincoln finally got down to grant.
also, somewhat related: i know i risk sounding preachy, but i pray for america, president obama and his security detail everyday. it's not much, but it's the least i can do. we've got the easy jobs -we get to write about our feelings, and we get to drink on the job, if we choose.
obama and his team have to do the hardest work. they have to be calm, like the hudson pilot, who was (unsurprisingly) on the cbs infotainment show this morning. katie couric asked him if he prayed as the plane was going down; he said no, he didn't have time, he had to be focused, and that he knew someone in back of the plane probably had the prayer part covered.
i know it's a little presumptious to ask any of you to be the superstitious dolt in the back of the plane who remembers to say his prayers, but that's kind of what i'm doing.
i say all this because when obama starts sacking generals and spooks, and starts implementing change that is meaningful for america, some people, particularly the dogmatic end-timer crowd, aren't gonna like it, so we patriotic need to get our president's back any way we can.
(sorry if i've offended any of my atheist, agnostic, jew, or wiccan friends -and i of course have many)
however, anyone who holds these beliefs will try to hide them--http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=59
"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" by Gore Vidal
Shadowgm. This posting format sucks.
or do you just like bitching.
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/img/original/mi...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
I think you have a point, some of these people are NUTS. I talked to the guy accros the street( reglious nut)about singing a letter to the county about fixing the ditch from flooding every time it rains. He said no because it was an act of god that it floods. I said NO it is an act of piss poor planning. he also asked me why I had Obama posters in my yard, he said, you know his birth records are fake and he is a muzlum. what a f*#ktard.
Or perhaps he just had a lousy voice. ;-)
It's stuff like this that makes me hope Obama loses Gates, et al, sooner rather than later.
The military "men" that rose to the top during the last 8 years were not the reasoned war fighters, they were the delusional BushCo ass lickers. There is NO reason they should still be in charge of anything.
wrongo thier is a reason why thier still around , its because the obama administrations goals remain the same as the bush administration! bad cop good cop, works for me!
Bad cop, no donut!
?
WTF?
Then why did Obama order the closing of Guantanamo Bay?
Why did Obama reverse the Bush orders of torture?
There is night and day differences between the current and previous administrations. To see them as the same, is to admit your drinking of the Ron Paul kool-aid.
while one cop smacks your skull in his buddy comes in and scolds the one who was just thunking your noggin in then he blows smoke up your ass and gives you some love, thiers no reversing of torture , it can still be done! all the torturer has to say is it was really really nessarary, as for gitmo , get real thiers more then one gitmo in the world somewhere , and i dont even read ron pauls views!
In military terms, a surge is used to break a stubborn defensive position, to overwhelm the defenses from several directions in order to advance a primary thrust.
In military terms, a surge is used to support a withdrawal from battle. It pushes an advancing army backwards until withdrawing forces can remove equipment and destroy infrastructure during withdrawal.
Somehow the term "surge" has been usurped by the news media and distorted into something unrecognizable to military planners.
A surge is a very old military tactic. Not an invention of the the 21st century.
actually to withdraw a military force you set up a rear guard and use as few men as it takes to hold off the attackers , its insane to reinforce a rear guard action by any such action as a surge!
"with U.S. casualties so reduced that commanders talk about keeping tens of thousands of soldiers there for many years to come." Must be a new thing in the military to decide how things are going to go in the future.
I say, do as the Commander In Chief tells you to do. Like prepare to leave Iraq.
Ah.....you take away Iran's biggest advisary, and I would bet my 401K on them being the big winner. Who else do you think would contend to be "a winner"? Certainly not the Iraqi people. They've been annihalated....dispersed, controlled by an occupying power.
Damn, these guys are smart. I believe Obama went to Iraq to hear FIRST HAND what Betrayus had to say. I don't think he was too interested in telling Betrayus what he had to say. Give me a f*cking break!! What an ass wipe.
As for "I'm really afraid of Iran".....stick your head up your own ass. I am NOT afraid of Iran. We have the potential to make an ally of this nation. They offered to be by our side after 9/11, until the dumb shit who free-loaded in the White House at the time announced they are part of the axis of evil, and we began to fear monger them into the ground.
They have a nutso leader, much like Hugo Chavez, and being an outspoked advisary of the previous administration was NOT such a bad thing in the eyes of the world.
God, these guys are such pricks. Makes it sound like Obama got taken to the wood shed and Iran is going to march on the US soon. What an ass wipe.
And go ahead and delete this if you wish, but i had to respond to this and i can't on the thread below.
Thank you for this policy decision. The constant juvenile insults thrown at this woman distract from the issue of why she is so dangerous. Allowing invective to overshadow issues does a diservice to us all.
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