The Surge has Failed

Yes folks, the much vaunted surge has failed. It was predicted that it would, it has but nobody wants to admit it. This is a disaster of unmitigated human, environmental and financial proportions and the Neo-labour party, Tory and political class in the U$ and the corporate media are pretty much to blame. They are trying to spin all sorts of things as the golden-boy of the hour, General David Petraeus takes to the stand to testify how well things are going.

It gets off to a...prescient...start when the General forgets to take the oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When a observer points this out, he's kicked out of the meeting. The General says;

"The military objectives of the surge are in large measure being met..."

And so on. Yesterday columnist Paul Krugman noted;

Here's what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he'll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq - as long as you don't count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head....First, no independent assessment has concluded that violence in Iraq is down. On the contrary, estimates based on morgue, hospital and police records suggest that the daily number of civilian deaths is almost twice its average pace from last year. And a recent assessment by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found no decline in the average number of daily attacks.

Remember the famous quote on civilian casualties by General Tommy Franks; "We don't do body counts..." Well now they need to back their arguments for the surge, it seems they do. But they only do body counts that suit them;

"But an official in the ministry who spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to release numbers said those numbers were heavily manipulated. The official said 1,980 Iraqis had been killed in July and that violent deaths soared in August, to 2,890..."

And former Marine, weapons inspector and Republican Scott Ritter is even more scathing about the so-called 'surge';

Nearly 4 1/2 years following President Bush's ill-fated (and illegal) decision to invade and occupy Iraq, few people in a position to influence policy formulation and implementation in America have actually grasped the horrible truth about what has transpired, and what is transpiring, in Mesopotamia today. As the United States places the finishing touches on Fortress America, the new half-billion-dollar Embassy complex in the heart of the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, and more troops pour into mega-bases throughout Iraq, the reality (and futility) of permanent occupation has yet to sink in. What could be going through the minds of those members of Congress who keep signing blank checks for the president? Is there no oversight of how and why this money is spent? How can someone fund permanent infrastructure one day, then speak of the need to get out of Iraq the next?....

In a way, Iraq is a manifestation of all that ails America today. A complete breakdown of fundamental societal checks and balances brought on by greed and hubris. From General Petraeus who will give it, to the mindless corporate-owned minions who populate much of Congress who will receive it, to the entertainment-as-news media which will report on it, and to the American people who will consume it with no foundation upon which to evaluate it, the "Petraeus Report" will have little relevance to what is really going on in Iraq. Once again, Americans will be searching for a solution to a problem they have yet to properly define.

And do you know how much the war in Iraq is going to cost once Bu$h pushes though a bid for more funding? $3 billion.

That's not $3 billion in total - its PER WEEK!