In the Department of War = Peace
(posted by Mona)
The headline says it all: Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge’s success
Because:
At least 20 people were reported to have been killed in two days of fighting in Basra and another 20 in clashes in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, a bastion of Shiite militias that follow radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The violence raised fears that a unilateral ceasefire called by Sadr last year, which US military officials have credited with helping to bring down last year’s high levels of violence in Iraq, was coming apart.
According to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, this all means that:
…at this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge,” referring to the sharp hike in US troops in Iraq from earlier last year to quell violence.
He said it was a success “in the sense that the Iraqi government has grown and increased in capability to the point where they now feel confident going after Shia extremists in a part of the country that they had not exerted great influence over.”
Morrell said US forces were supporting the Iraqi crackdown, mainly from the air, but it was an Iraqi operation.
If there is a violent reaction, he said, “that is the consequence of what we believe to be the right posture by the Iraqi government: to aggressively go after terrorists and extremists, Sunni or Shia alike.”
Eric Blair, phone home.
Addendum: As Think Progress reports, Bush’s repeating this noxiousness means it is a desperate spin coming from the top:
Today — as rockets rain down on the Green Zone and two American soldiers died — Bush cast the activity as a “very positive moment” in an interview with the Times of U.K.
This is the Tinker Bell theory of war that has afflicted us and Iraq for the entire Bush Administration’s reign. Please, please let it stop with the election of ‘08.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am
[...] becky.leblanc wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe headline says it all: Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge’s success. (more…) [...]
March 27th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Is there anything that could conceivably falsify their claims that the surge is working? When the helicopters evacuate the last Americans from the roof of the embassy in Baghdad, they’ll probably say it’s just another sign of success.