Posted on 12/23/2007 3:33:31 PM PST by neverdem
AS 2007 comes to close, how should we understand the situation in Iraq? Are we witnessing the greatest American military comeback late in a war since Sherman’s march to the sea in 1864? Or is Iraq still a weakly governed and very violent place where sectarian reconciliation is starkly absent?
The problem for American policymakers, troops and voters is that both these situations are simultaneously real. Iraq’s security environment is considerably improved, with security at its best levels since early 2004. This is largely thanks to the surge-based strategy of Gen. David Petraeus and the heroic efforts — and sacrifice — of so many American and Iraqi troops and police officers (more Americans have died in Iraq in 2007 than in any previous year, though death rates have dropped greatly in the last few months). But Iraq’s political environment and its economy are only marginally better than a year ago. High oil prices have helped the latter, but violence and rampant corruption remain huge problems...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Jason Campbell is a senior research assistant at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at Brookings. Amy Unikewicz is a graphic designer in South Norwalk, Conn.
No matter what is done, it will never be good enough, at least until a Democrat president is elected.
for real?
Confucius
That said, the NYT can suck an egg
Well to start with you should try credible sources. Brookings in a Leftist think take and the NY Slimes the newspaper of record for America's enemies.
To answer their false premise. Neither. The situation in Iraq was never as bleak as the hysterics in the drama queen media made it out to be. The problem has always been that the Drama Queens manufacture the US "News" product have always been more concerned with using Iraq for domestic politics then honestly reporting the situation in Iraq.
The problem has been an inability for Junk Media types, the average American voter, and our politicians to grasp that not every situation can be resolved in 30 mins or less with breaks for commericals. Neither can a country be cured of the effects of 40 years of mass murder, rape and oppression overnight.
The problem has also been that the spoiled brats of the Boomer generation that run America's "News" media and populate it's political class have always had vastly unrealistic expectation of how fast things could happen in Iraq.
The dirty secret is "The Surge" has always been as much about changing the the Junk Media's propaganda template about Iraq here at home as it has been about Military action in Iraq.
By trying to move the goal post on Iraq yet again, the Leftist s are positioning it right where the Iraq ball is going next. Every time they try to move the Iraq goalposts, they manage to score against themselves again.
[. . .but violence and rampant corruption remain huge problems.]
The same problems facing most large U.S. cities.
You are exactly right! I'll just give one instance, of many, to back up that assertion. The claim that went unchecked that the US killed 100,000 Iraqis by 2004 and then killed 600,000 Iraqis by 2006 was from a completely bogus report called the Lancet Report that did not do a count but rather extrapolated a sample.
The actual count by the group IRAQ BODY COUNT puts the total at about 70,000 right now and most of that is buy the insurgency and includes insurgents. And IRAQ BODY COUNT has a count of civilians killed by the coalition in 2006 at 526 Iraqis killed and in 2005 only some 300 killed.
That's a far cry from saying the US has killed 600,000 Iraqis yet that MSM let that go unchecked and unchallenged throughout this war.
SCREW THE NYTs! I don't give a rat's nasty tail which way they think the wind is blowing... Hang'em all...
That's about it.
That's about it.
Corruption in their favorite foreign countries is on no concern: Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China, Zimbabwe and many others. The only concerns they have are in countries that are friends and allies of the United States.
And their analogy using the US War Between the Satates is completely false but indicitative of their ignorance of military history and current military operations. But the spring of 1864 when Sherman broke out of Chattanooga and was fighting pitched battles on his way to the Sept 2, 1864 capture of Atlanta and subsequent march to the sea, the war had already been won in the West by the Union. Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas were either cut off from Richmond or completely subdued except for minor actions. The Confederate Army lacked everything it needed to sustain the nation and was fading rapidly with massive desertions and casualties. The March to the Sea was simply one of the final nails in the coffin. So for the Slimes to imply the whole Civil War was on the verge of being lost in the summer of 1864 is wrong militarily, just as the military situation today is on the verge of victory after a long and hard fought campaign. Where the war was nearly lost in the face of overwhelming military victories in 1864 was in the political realm in Washington and in traitor newspapers calling for negotiation and withdrawal........just like today. It was Shermans victorious Georgia campaign just like Patraeus’ Surge Campaign that finally convinced common sense Americans that the war was not lost and success was/is at hand. So the Slimes has done its part to bring defeat, just as much of the media did in 1864, but alas, a strong President has ignored their cries and moved forward to success. And the media hates it.
This is all due to the amazing President Bush.
And we trust the NY Times for our updates because....? They NEVER fake the news. Right. ;-)
Why won’t the media tell the truth. If the Democrats had their way and removed our troops in 05/06 Iraq would have fallen apart and now be a bastion of terror training camps, genocide, ethnic cleansing and money machine for Iran’s Mullahs... and because the Democrats removed the troops America now faces dangers unlike anything it has experienced before..Attacks on America by Al-Qaida would be at an all time high.... not since 911 would so many Americans died, in their workplaces thousands of our children in their schools murdered at the hands of the cruel jihadists... Thanks to the politics of the Democrats...
That is an accurate and solid post you just made.
Brookings leans left, but they have been pretty straightforward in charting the course of the Iraq conflict. They’ve certainly been critical, but also haven’t been shy to note progress.
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