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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Surge-on, General

On Tuesday, the same day Bush gave his rosy assessment of the surge, Sunni Arab guerrillas bombed processions of Shiite pilgrims commemorating the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, al-Husayn. They killed some 115 pilgrims. News of the pilgrims' deaths undermined the American claims to be able to provide security, and will certainly eventually result in reprisal killings. Many Shiites believe that the Mahdi Army did a much better job of providing security for the religious processions, and that for the U.S to disarm them this year was a deadly mistake. Since these attempts to target the pilgrims were predictable, it is difficult to understand why the al-Maliki government and the U.S. did not forestall them.
-- Juan Cole, from his Salon article "Is the Bush surge already failing?" To which I answer: No, it has already succeeded in flummoxing the worthless Dumbocrat "opposition" and guaranteed that the war will continue for many more months, and probably years. Just as it was designed to do. Reducing violence in Iraq was never the goal of the surge; quite the opposite. As long as Bush can keep Americans getting killed daily, he can cry that we need to "support the troops," and demand that we support the "war effort" when the troops are in "harm's way." He can continue to trash the Constitution, and keep the Dems whimpering in their corner, even if it is currently the biggest one.

Vague, pointless, endless wars against ill-defined enemies, keeping a frightened and ill-informed populace cowering and under control: Orwell knew EXACTLY what he was writing about.