Letters to the Editor
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Surge Has Already Failed …
Let me see if I understand this. The entire purpose of the ‘surge’ that Bush et al have been pounding down our throats for the past few months is the following:
The ‘surge’ provides security for Bagdad and surrounding area so the government of Iraq can get down to business and make the deals the Bush administration is demanding.
Over the last couple of weeks the Iraqi government has all but collapsed. The Sunnis have pulled out. Maliki’s called for a summit and only invited one Sunni member of government (his VP) and it’s iffy on whether he shows up. Maliki is now threatening to fire all the existing Sunni cabinet members and replace them with the US’s new Sunni ‘friends’ from Anbar province (and forget that whole ‘election’ thing we’ve been touting). Several Shiite members of parliament are threatening a no confidence vote when they get back from their ‘vacation’. Others have pulled their support.
So even if we grant that the security situation has ‘improved’ (a highly dubious claim at best that Salon has already debunked) it seems that rather than ‘getting down to business’ the Iraqi government is collapsing.
So the ‘surge’ has had the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.