Ask the people who die in Iraq today if the surge is working

Hearing John McCain talk of the glorious “surge” that escalated the Occupation of Iraq, you’d quickly come away convinced that it was the greatest military maneuver in the history of man.

Luckily, Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune listens to people other than McCain, as well:

The troop escalation has not been the complete failure Obama suggested it would be, but it has fallen far short of the triumph claimed by Republicans. The level of violence, though down from the very worst months of the war, remains at levels comparable with 2005, which were considered awful at the time.

Iraqi civilians died at a higher rate in the first four months of this year than in the same period of 2005. The number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces is about the same. Here is McCain’s definition of success: returning to a pace of bloodshed that was once regarded as intolerable.

Even the progress made in the last 18 months is only partly attributable to the additional American forces. Equally important was the decision of Sunni militias to turn against Al Qaeda in Iraq.

McCain insists this shift was only made possible by the surge—when, in fact, it happened several months before. Does he not know what really happened? Or does he not care?

Also contributing to the decline in sectarian violence was that by 2007, it already had achieved its main goal: driving Sunnis out of Shiite neighborhoods and vice versa. Of the 5 million Iraqis who fled their homes in the last five years, only 30,000 have returned.

The refugee crisis is just one of the results of a war that McCain has supported all along.

The surge didn’t provide a remedy to that or the many other afflictions that plague Iraq.

For good or ill, though, we have probably achieved about all we can with the means available.

That’s obvious to most Americans and most Iraqis. Once in a while, the realization even dawns on John McCain. But he lies down until it passes.

The results of the “Surge” and the other clever war-winning efforts by the Bush-McCain war party: No political improvement. Civilians, U.S. Troops, Iraqi politicians and others keep dying at a steady rate. Iraq is a step away from a massive civil war regardless of what the U.S. does now. Afghanistan is a chaotic narco-state where violence is rising.

Whether or not the Takeover of Iraq will be successful in the long run remains to be seen. Remember, victory in Iraq has nothing to do with dead troops, civilians or whether or not Iraq becomes a freedom-loving democracy. It has to do with how much profit and oil the U.S. can drain from the former sovereign nation. And thus far, they appear on their way to a victory.

Because the Big Business types who took over Iraq have a different mindset about war than the rest of humanity, which is why they’ve already marked down the “Surge” as a great victory for America. The death that the Occupation brings is nothing to them, provided contracts are signed.

But to the rest of us, the charade that is the “War on Terror” has never been more obvious, and U.S. goals in Iraq have never been less transparent. So ask the relatives of those who will die in Iraq today whether the glorious “surge” has been a success. Or just ask anyone who doesn’t believe that ethnic cleansing plus escalation equals a fantastic military success.

–WKW

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