A Day In the Life of “The Surge”
I’ve heard a great deal of discussion lately that the so-called “surge” of US troops is quelling violence in Iraq. While violent incidents inside Bagdad do seem to be down, it appears the killing has just moved outside the city as predicted. This is the classic game of wack-a-mole that so many said would happen.
Doubt it?
Here is a small five item snipet from an hour-by-hour account of incidents that occurred in Iraq on Monday, April 9th, 2007. For the complete list go read the full timeline. Things are not getting better despite what some would have you believe, and now the Pentagon says it must extend the tour of duty of 15,000 soldiers (4 brigades) to up to 120 days. Why? So that the surge can continue. Read the entire thing and pay attention to the location of the incidents. Of all of these, only three occurred within Bagdad proper.
• 4:30 a.m. Clashes erupted again in Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, between gunmen and al-Qaida in Iraq fighters. Thirty civilians and gunmen were wounded, Diyala provincial police said. Al-Qaida casualties were not known.
• 9 a.m. A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol in the Al-Nile district, 12 miles north of Hilla. There were no known casualties, police said.
• 9:30 a.m. Police in Hilla south of Baghdad found the bullet-riddled, handcuffed and blindfolded body of an unidentified man, a spokesman for the Babil provincial police said.
• 10 a.m. A roadside bomb targeting an American patrol exploded in Jebala, 40 miles south of Baghdad. A Babil province police spokesman said it was not known if there were any U.S. casualties because American forces sealed the areas.
• 10 a.m. Gunman in a car shot and killed a civilian in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, according to Babil provincial police.
• More…
Others have said it, and I’ll say it here again. There is no good military solution in Iraq. Their problems are systemic and only sociological and political changes will solve them. It won’t make a difference if we stay in country 5 years or 50 years. Not one damned bit.
No one supports the US Military more than I do, having spent 22 years in it. I also participated in a dead end civil war that we did not belong in. It was clear to anyone who spent a week in Viet Nam that whoever ruled, it would not affect the peasants. They owned nothing and still would own nothing, regardless of which side won.
If the Sunni and the Shia want to kill each other, I say get out of their way and let them have at it. We had a civil war, France had one as did England and countless others.
All the borders in the mideast were artificially drawn after the first world war. Let them hash it out any way they want, just get our troops the hell out of there.
David, thanks for your service to our country. I’m sure I can’t relate to what it must have been like, but many seem to be drawing parallels from that war to this one. Its sad that we cannot learn from mistakes in the past and see what needs to be done.
The supply of lives and funds is hardly infinite. We are rapidly approaching a point where no other option will be viable except to withdraw. Of course, if King George has his way, he’ll leave that to his successor.