From the Left

 

The Escalation of Troops in Iraq

 

It seems that the Surge (Escalation) of American troops in Iraq is going pretty good, so good that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Pace said a couple of days ago that they may send even more troops to Iraq before the end of the year.

A few days ago the Bush administration released a report to Congress that showed the progress of the Surge (Escalation) in Iraq. In this report, required by Congress, the Bush administration assessed the Iraqi Government’s performance on 18 benchmarks. It reported both satisfactory and unsatisfactory progress. A full assessment will be released in September 2007.

The Whitehouse put its best spin possible on the report, but overall the report showed little progress. The Bush administration without a doubt has the best spin machine of any presidency, but sometimes, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it really is a duck.

A couple of benchmarks that the report showed were that Iraqi troops are not ready to take the lead and it showed that the Iraqi government is so dysfunctional that nothing can be agreed upon.

You can read the whole report on the Whitehouse Web site, here is the address:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070712.html

 

The Surge (Escalation) Has Been Tried Before in Iraq

 

The last time a surge was set forth was the summer of 2006. We sent more troops in, kept troops there longer, very similar to the current surge, but this time even more troops.

Since Bush announced the Surge (Escalation) this past January, 615 American soldiers have been killed, and 3801 American troops have been wounded.

Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilian deaths have also surged. The ONLY portion of the report that really has any good news is that the deaths caused by the sectarian violence (Civil War) have dropped by about twenty five percent.

Bush for years now has been telling us that he always listens to his Generals and if they need more troops or supplies all they had to do was ask.

In 2003 before the start of Bush’s Folly, a General by the name of Eric Shinseki told Bush that 400 to 500 thousand troops would be needed to keep the peace after we won the War. Well, Bush listened to Gen. Shinseki, and then told Rumsfeld to fire him and get me a General who has a smaller number of troops in mind.

General John Abizaid the man who was in charge in Iraq, would later state that Gen. Shinseki was right. General Abizaid was replaced this past December by General David Petraeus who is currently executing the Surge (Escalation) in Iraq.

 

Polls by the American People

 

The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite the surge (escalation) in US forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq. Source: Newsweek

In every poll the majority of Americans want to see our troops start to come home. We are now even beginning to see a few Republican senators calling for our troops to come home, but why the sudden change from these conservative republicans?

Maybe the 2008 election has something to do with these Republicans siding with the Democratic Party. In the next election, 33 Senators will be running to keep their seats, and 21 of them are Republicans.

Or maybe these Republicans have seen the error of their ways by backing Bush and his Folly in Iraq. No, that can’t be it.

President Bush has said on more than one occasion that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will be left  to the next President, and this is one of the few times I believe him.

 

So what Have we Seen with the Escalation of Troops (The Surge)

 

·        According to the Whitehouse 8 out of the 18 benchmarks warrant a satisfactory grade

·        According to the Whitehouse 10 of the 18 benchmarks are failing miserably

·        According to the Pentagon a surge of Americans have been killed

·        According to the Pentagon Iraqi troops still are unable to Stand on their own

·        According to the Whitehouse the Iraqi Government has been unable to meet any of their benchmarks

 

I would urge everyone to read the Assessments of the 18 benchmarks on the Whitehouse Web site, unfortunately I do not have enough space to go over each one, but I think all Americans should see for themselves what has or has not been accomplished with the escalation of troops.

Bush has been trying to link al-Qaeda in Iraq to what happened here on 911. In all of his recent speeches he’s been saying that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AIR) are the same al-Qaeda who attacked us on 911. But AIR was not around during 911, and it is Bush’s Folly in Iraq, that helped to create AIR.

According to a Intel Report that was leaked to the press, al-Qaeda is stronger now than it was in 2001 thanks to Bush’s Folly in Iraq. The report speaks of the Original al-Qaeda (OAQ) that was in Afghanistan and is now somewhere along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.

The OAQ and AIR are really two different organizations But Bush is now trying to lump them into one group so he can say that Iraq was also responsible for 911. In fact Bush is on record saying that Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 911 or al-Qaeda.

So what we really have here is Bush pushing AIR to give his folly in Iraq more meaning. In September 2006 Bush gave an interview to Fox News Channels Fred Barnes and Bush said, “Bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism.”

So is Bush spewing hot air about AIR? Does Bush even remember saying that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 911?

On September 11, 2006 the fifth anniversary of 911 Bush gave a speech to the nation... 

 

Here is an Excerpt:

 

"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks," President Bush said. "The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat. My administration, the Congress, and the United Nations saw the threat - and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. “

"The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

Well, not according to the latest Intel reports, al-Qaeda is stronger than ever, more people around the world hate us, and more people want to kill us.

Anyhow it looks like the Surge(Escalation) may be followed up by another Surge (Escalation) and for those of you not old enough to remember Vietnam, each Escalation of troops in that War, was followed up with another Escalation of troops and another and another and on and on.

The World and America will be safer, when Bush is out of office.

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com