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Six Months to Eternity

Posted by MICHAEL STICKINGS, Assistant Editor in At TMV.
Jan 23rd, 2008 | 3 responses

We knew this was coming. The surge has not worked (or only in a temporary and limited way), contrary to the claims of the warmongers, but the Great and Infallible General Petraeus wants more time — in fact, he wants six more months, just like it was all about six months last year. It’s all part of what I’ve called “the surge deception,” with Bush and Petraeus and the rest of the warmongers changing the rules of the game while the game is already underway, which is to say, altering the timelines, redefining the definition of success, and reestablishing the very purpose of the surge. Remember when the goal was political reconciliation and the long-term stability of the government in Baghdad? Remember when last September was the key date, before it wasn’t anymore?

And now they want more time?

Basically, I’m with Hullabaloo’s dday on this:

As Andrew Bacevich said the other day, this was actually the real goal of the surge — to keep our troops stuck in Iraq for as long as possible, so the occupation could be passed off to the next President. The idea was to create enough security success in the short-term by flooding the zone with troops to offer a propaganda victory, to allow the neocon wags to sputter “We’re winning!” and forestall the inevitable drawdown. Now, death tolls are actually rising again, and the Shiite militia cease-fire could be ending. But Iraq has moved off the front page, and the endless shouts of victory from the right have dampened any effect of this new data. And the warhawks are essentially running interference for those like Bush and Petraeus who are simply trying to prolong matters.

The truth about Iraq needs to be told — and needs to return to the front pages. If not, and if Iraq is not the major issue this year we though it would be (and it may not be, what with the recession and all), the warmongers’ strategy of washing their hands of their self-made disaster may prove far more successful than their surge.

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3 Responses to “Six Months to Eternity”

Davebo says:

January 23, 2008 at 5:12 pm

The truth about Iraq needs to be told — and needs to return to the front pages.

I think most people who would be willing to actually evaluate the “truth” honestly already know it.
Slamfu says:

January 23, 2008 at 5:23 pm

You got that right. Also, no one left of right ever thought the surge would have power on in baghdad by now either.
Rudi says:

January 23, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Thanks for the link to Bacevich, he's a voice ignored over the Kagan's, Kristol's and O'Hanlon's. He nails it with this:

From the hallowed halls of the American Enterprise Institute waft facile assurances that all will come out well. AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht assures us that the moment to acknowledge “democracy's success in Iraq” has arrived. To his colleague Michael Ledeen, the explanation for the turnaround couldn't be clearer: “We were the stronger horse, and the Iraqis recognized it.” In an essay entitled “Mission Accomplished” that is being touted by the AEI crowd, Bartle Bull, the foreign editor of the British magazine Prospect, instructs us that “Iraq's biggest questions have been resolved.” Violence there “has ceased being political.” As a result, whatever mayhem still lingers is “no longer nearly as important as it was.” Meanwhile, Frederick W. Kagan, an AEI resident scholar and the arch-advocate of the surge, announces that the “credibility of the prophets of doom” has reached “a low ebb.”

Presumably Kagan and his comrades would have us believe that recent events vindicate the prophets who in 2002-03 were promoting preventive war as a key instrument of U.S. policy. By shifting the conversation to tactics, they seek to divert attention from flagrant failures of basic strategy. Yet what exactly has the surge wrought? In substantive terms, the answer is: not much.

These idiots are ready for the $20 mil Victory in Iraq parade