USD College Republicans
- All
- Climate Change/Global Warming
- Affirmative Action
- Freedom
- Medicare
- No Child Left Behind
- Economics
- Media
- Taxes
- Ridiculous!
- Trade
- Democrats
- Telecom
- The Courts
- Neo-conservatism
- Presidential Race 2008
- Libertarianism
- Earmarks
- Student Government Association
- Congress
- University of South Dakota
- State and Local Politics
- General
- Republicans
- Grassroots conservatism
- Iraq
- Education
- USD Political Science League
- Afghanistan
- SCHIP
- Subsidies
- Spending
- Health Care
- Social Security
- Africa
- Labor unions
- Political Philosophy
- Hyperion Oil Refinery at Elk Point
- Foreign Policy
- War on Terror
I've got a not-so-secret secret!
Pssst...the surge is working...don't tell the Dems
-
-
"Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, seem lost in a time warp. They could try to impose new benchmarks that acknowledge the military progress. Instead, too many seem unable or unwilling to admit that President Bush's surge of 30,000 more troops has succeeded beyond their initial predictions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who in the spring declared the war lost, said last week that "the surge hasn't accomplished its goals." Anti-war Democrats remain fixated on tying war funding to a rapid troop withdrawal. Yet pulling the troops out precipitously threatens to squander the progress of recent months toward salvaging a decent outcome to the Iraq debacle."
-
-
No explanation needed for this piece...Read it!
-
-Matt Hittle
Posted at 12:56PM Dec 13, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq | Comments[2]
Yes... hmmm. I've seen how the "surge" has been employed as well in Iraq. It's a temporary fix attempt for a permanent problem.
Granted - the violence seems to have gone down and there are less soldiers being killed but there's another reason for this you're not seeing on the media outlets.
I follow several American soldiers 'secret blogs' in Iraq which show what's really happening day to day - their journals - their pictures - their videos.
The so called 'solution' actually has nothing to do with the 'surge'. The 'solution' has been to erect giant concrete barrier walls - turning the cities of Iraq into a labyrinth of checkpoints and gates which every single person must move through.
Every person is searched from ears to between the toes to get through these gates. Each gate is manned by dozens of U.S. troops scattered along the barriers so they are there to group up in the event of an incident but not close enough to all be taken out at once by a IED.
Although it's an ingenious 'finger in the hole' strategy to maintain security in these ultra-hostile urban areas - and kudos to the troops and commanders who thought this up - they are not PERMANENT solutions. These concrete barricades divide streets up into a twisty maze of armed checkpoints that interrupt the flow of life and freedom and liberty for everyone who lives there.
So sure - while this tack works to HOLD and SECURE an area when you have adequate troop numbers - as soon as start to reduce the numbers and inevitably take down the massive concrete barriers which cannot remain forever (because they totally block free movement of civilians and commerce and transportation and so on) - the insurgents will be able to freely access common civilian areas again and resume their suicidal campaign of sectarian violence.
So it's just a matter of time before the violence returns to these areas. Unless there is a permanent American troop presence - there will be no security or end to the violence. We have totally screwed ourselves into two options - staying there forever or cutting and running.
Posted by Douglas Bryenldson on December 14, 2007 at 11:28 AM CST #
While I don't deny that there are still problems in Iraq, and that some soldiers have "secret blogs," I am wary of taking information from a civilian who claims to have the inside scoop.
No matter how you want to discount the surge, the facts are immutable- violence and deaths are down in number and all signs point to a continuation of that decline.
Posted by Matt Hittle on December 14, 2007 at 11:52 AM CST #