The real reason the "surge" is working

[merrimac]

No one can know if the war in Iraq will end up as a positive or a negative. For all we know in a decade President Bush could be considered the greatest leader in the history of the world, and the father of "world peace" because of the Iraq war. Or the entire world could be on nuclear fire...

The surge worked, for whatever reason there is more stability in Iraq. Good for us and for Iraq.

(1) I believe President Bush is honest and is following the path he believes is the right path,
(2) the war in Iraq will probably have both positive and negative sideaffects,
(3) the job of President of the United States is not an easy one, and it is silly for us to sit here and trash President Bush. Instead give him praise for all the good he has done, and respectfully question the decisions you don't agree with.

I can't say that I agree with anything in this post.

I've been following the campaign since May and it was only recently that I learned that there is a small portion of Ron Paul supporters who also support Bush. It still boggles my mind why that is. If you are one of those people, I guess it's better to have you with Ron Paul than against him but I completely fail to understand what drives people with your views to support him.

 

[FreeTraveler]

Got any more of those drugs you're on? I could use a good fantasy or two.

No one can know if the war in Iraq will end up as a positive or a negative. For all we know in a decade President Bush could be considered the greatest leader in the history of the world, and the father of "world peace" because of the Iraq war. Or the entire world could be on nuclear fire...

The surge worked, for whatever reason there is more stability in Iraq. Good for us and for Iraq.

(1) I believe President Bush is honest and is following the path he believes is the right path,
(2) the war in Iraq will probably have both positive and negative sideaffects,
(3) the job of President of the United States is not an easy one, and it is silly for us to sit here and trash President Bush. Instead give him praise for all the good he has done, and respectfully question the decisions you don't agree with.

 

[braumstr]

The surge is working because all sides were successful in their ethnic cleansing operations, leaving the only thing left to decide is which side wins, hence a natural lull in the action. The surge was a facade to take advantage of this known fact and claim progress.

The question remains: Now what? When we pull back do they fight, talk or something in between? What does the US do next? So long as we remain, does any of it matter since everyone knows we have our finger on the pump switch?

I think it is possible all sides could turn against us again at some point, but there is a chance it could go the other way. This is why I cringed a little at Dr. Paul's comments during the SC debate. If Iraq continues to improve, it will impact our Revolution in a negative way. No doubt about it.

Its immoral, and wrong, but the Neocons still have a shot at expanding the empire. This cannot be denied by any serious observer.

 

[rickcain]

The surge never worked

Saying the surge worked is like saying Ronald Reagan was responsible for the dissolution of the USSR.

(BTW the USSR dissolved because of Breznev's massive deficit spending on the military and the coup de gras was the botched KGB coup of Gorbachev, had nothing to do with Ronnie)

Violence has gone down because the Iraq resistance has pretty much taken over Al-Qaeda's operations and has eliminated their power in the country. The headless bodies in the streets....former Al Qaeda foreign fighters.

Even Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in an interview that his biggest mistake was allowing the very powerful Ansar-Al-Sunnah (iraqi resistance) into the power structure. They immediately took over and ditched Al Qaeda's plans for the islamisation of the country, replacing it with a simple military resistance against the US coalition. They have also invited shiites into the resistance groups, which Al Qaeda was unable to stop. (Shiites are often considered blasphemers and devil worshippers in the eyes of the sunni Al Qaeda).

So now the violence that is left is restricted to attacks against USA troops and civilian contractors. The mass truck bombs against civilians has dropped off rapidly not because of Dubya's "surge", but because major iraqi factions have consolidated their powers and have created power structures with central control.

On the shiite side, Badr (Hakim) and Jaish-al-Mahdi (Sadr)

On the sunni side, Ansar-al-Sunnah and its 24 or so smaller allied groups, including ones from more secular resistance armies like Army of Mohammed and Fedayeen Saddam.

The Bush Regime is of course more than happy to take credit for stuff they didn't do.

 

[Elegy]

We are paying "former insurgents" $10 a day to form neighborhood watches instead of fighting us. Cost is approximately $250 million/year. I wish someone would call out Mr. "I supported the surge and were winning" McCain. As soon as the checks stop cashing shit(e) will once again hit the fan.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

You are the kind of people that turn people off to RP. I'm an RP supporter and am in Iraq right now. The surge is working because there our numbers are overwhelming and we're doing our job. Will the stability last with a drawdown? Not so sure. You can disagree with the war, but taking away from the job we're doing is going to do any good with getting RP more support.

 

[Roadrcr]

You can't win through war. How do you beat a guy with dynomite strapped to his chest. Lead by example is the only way.

 

[brandon13830]

You are the kind of people that turn people off to RP. I'm an RP supporter and am in Iraq right now. The surge is working because there our numbers are overwhelming and we're doing our job. Will the stability last with a drawdown? Not so sure. You can disagree with the war, but taking away from the job we're doing is going to do any good with getting RP more support.

Thank you for your service. I'm sure there are many factors as to why the surge has worked and not the least of which is the job done by the soldiers.

 

[hawks4ronpaul]

We are paying "former insurgents" $10 a day to form neighborhood watches instead of fighting us. Cost is approximately $250 million/year. I wish someone would call out Mr. "I supported the surge and were winning" McCain. As soon as the checks stop cashing shit(e) will once again hit the fan.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

You are the kind of people that turn people off to RP. I'm an RP supporter and am in Iraq right now. The surge is working because there our numbers are overwhelming and we're doing our job. Will the stability last with a drawdown? Not so sure. You can disagree with the war, but taking away from the job we're doing is going to do any good with getting RP more support.

Elegy, Hello. I think you and Pumaz agree with each other. Unless the $250 million is wasted and ineffective, then it is contributing to the numbers ratio but the benefit might not last after we end the effort.

http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

 

[AisA1787]

You are the kind of people that turn people off to RP. I'm an RP supporter and am in Iraq right now. The surge is working because there our numbers are overwhelming and we're doing our job. Will the stability last with a drawdown? Not so sure. You can disagree with the war, but taking away from the job we're doing is going to do any good with getting RP more support.

Elegy, thanks for posting this and thanks for your service. I've been curious to hear what soldiers in Iraq think about the surge and about Ron Paul. Which branch of the military are you in? Is the support for Ron Paul as widespread in the military as the donation figures make it seem?

 

[rockwell]

my oldest friend is a Marine CSM on his 4th tour and he said things were better because no one goes out on any missions anymore. He states that some kind of agreement was worked out to ignore certain parts of the country and leave things alone in exchange for allowing supplies to roll through and that as long we don't raid anything or engage in hostilities they won't blow up convoys. He said we were the ones having terms dictated to rather than the other way around and that it felt like they were hostages in their compounds.

So if that's someone's definition of"working" than I guess it is.

 

[Elegy]

Elegy, thanks for posting this and thanks for your service. I've been curious to hear what soldiers in Iraq think about the surge and about Ron Paul. Which branch of the military are you in? Is the support for Ron Paul as widespread in the military as the donation figures make it seem?

AisA, I'm in the Army. My unit was part of the surge. Ever since we got here, the violence has dropped considerably. I'm sure it's a multitude of reasons, but the IED attacks and mortar attacks have dropped big time. The feelings are mixed, but alot feel like a drawdown will correlate with what we saw when we first arrived.
As far as Ron Paul support, to be honest, it seems most of the younger guys do not follow politics and the majority of people I do talk politics with have never heard of Paul or think he's a whackjob. The few who do support him, are huge supporters. The problem is that, other than internet, all we get is AFN, which pretty much just shows a mix of Fox, CNN, and MSNBC on the news channel. Other than the debates, which have come on at like 5 or 6 am here, Ron Paul news is few and far between. I have, though, been able to get the word out as much as I can and am getting through to a few people who plan on voting. Most of them being Democrats who want to pull out of here and Christians like myself.
I think his message would appeal to most of the military, it's just lack of information and people are too lazy to seek it out on the internet. Oh well, I'm doing what I can. God bless.

 

[DaneKirk]

You are the kind of people that turn people off to RP. I'm an RP supporter and am in Iraq right now. The surge is working because there our numbers are overwhelming and we're doing our job. Will the stability last with a drawdown? Not so sure. You can disagree with the war, but taking away from the job we're doing is going to do any good with getting RP more support.

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS DEPLOYED TO THIS REGION THAT ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!!! Even though I am in Turkey, I fly into Iraq every other day. Violence is way down, although recently things have picked up in the north, my friend was on the ground in Mosul about ready to take off when the bomb went off a few days ago and it was all over the news. I agree with you that people should not take away from the hard work we all have put into the cause regardless of what you think about the war.

 

[dc_]

I believe the surge is "working" for two main reasons:

1. more troops = more physical space occupied. two "armies" cannot occupy the same land at the same time. more land occupied = less areas violent. (removing the troops will free the land to be occupied again though, think and ebb and flow of civil warfare)
2. the real reason is Muqtada al-Sadr called a 6 month cease-fire in August against all sides (as a result of militia infighting and bad racial attacks, nothing to do with the usa). but... OF COURSE THERE IS LESS VIOLENCE THERE IS A MILITIA CEASE FIRE GOING ON. it is a lull between the sides of the civil war, presumably to come into doubt again on February 29th, 2008 when the cease fire expires. recent news source

 

[braumstr]

The military did its job long ago. Saddam swung from the end of a Rope for cryin out loud!

The real slander against our heroic forces are those who even MENTION DEFEAT.

Defeat by whom? Who are we to defeat? Who is to defeat us?!? No one, thats who. Withdraw from Iraq does not = defeat that is a false choice. We WON already, its over, period DOT.

I say come home because we have done enough. More than enough.

So long as there is one bridge at risk from falling into a river or one child hungry within our borders we should not spend another DIME in Iraq! You want democracy, put it to a vote. Let the Iraqis, or here is an idea, let US VOTE ON IT.

NOT ONE MORE DAMN DIME OR ONE MORE DROP OF BLOOD FOR THIS IRRATIONAL WAR!

Let those who want to rebuild Iraq send their own money there, NOT MINE. Not another dime, not another drop of blood.