McCain Credits Surge for Anbar Awakening

I dont (0.00 / 0)

think the Tribal Councils had anything to do with the surge at all. Rather, it probably had to do with the fact that AQI and their Wahhabi brothers are serious assholes whom pretty much everyone who has actually dealt with them wishes an immediate death. The brave and sensible actions of our troops in Anbar certainly had alot to do with the turnaround, but the politicians made little,if any contribution. I just the partisan political idiots dont go and do something boneheaded again, like supporting Muslim Brotherhood linked groups like the IIP over the Tribal Councils.

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by: FredUSMC @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 02:30:11 AM CDT

Not A Mistake (4.00 / 1)

If you listen closely or read the writings of those spinning the talking points the 'surge', i.e. escalation and still in effect, everything they imagine is due to the great leaders victory surge, and that includes the cooperation.

Security is tighter, but it seems nothing else, exactly what the surge was supposed to accomplish, has been.

They totally ignore, and change the subject or go quiet, when one brings up Sadr's ceasefires, the refugee problem, the ethnic cleansing of the neighborhoods, the blast walls surrounding some of those neighborhoods, the paying of these groups to cooperate which has been reported that program is coming to an end.........................

The government is still only moving at a snails pace if at all, the infrastructure, electricity, sewage, garbage doesn't seem to have improved, and the rebuilding looks about as stagnant as it has.

Yet when pushed that if their surge worked so well than troops not needed anymore in Iraq they start spinning the total opposite, troops stay, more might be needed, they still aren't looking at Afghanistan nor worried about it..............................................., yet they aren't rushing to their recruiters.

Not a mistake, say it over and over, and people believe it, the rush mantra and rovian speak.

And the Press helps out because most of them don't understand nor care neither!

I'm still waiting for a definition of 'Victory', though we've been waiting for that definition since 'Nam, and McCain's a pilot, not a chopper pilot and not a grunt!

'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson

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by: jimstaro @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 04:59:22 AM CDT

Falluja (0.00 / 0)

Fallujah braces for another assault

In the face of US military claims of improved security, violence has been rising by the day this month. The city has now been placed under tight curfew while US and Iraqi military forces prepare for a new offensive, according to the local Azzaman daily.
Iraqi security forces have established new checkpoints around the city and are forbidding movement of people and traffic. Pick-up trucks are roaming the city warning residents that al-Qaeda has once again infiltrated Fallujah.

'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson

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by: jimstaro @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 05:33:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I doubt there (4.00 / 1)

will be another assault on Fallujah. Probably a disinformation campaign put forth by the IIP and their partners in crime, AQI. Then again, why dont we get out of the way and let the tribesman go at AQI however they see fit. It would be Iraqis standing up so we can stand down, wouldn't it?

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by: FredUSMC @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 18:12:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

If the surge was a success (4.00 / 2)

Then we can bring our troops home.  If it accomplished the goals it was intended to accomplish, then we no longer need to have a massive military presence there.  To say that we can not withdraw our troops is to say that the surge was a failure.  McCain cannot have it both ways.  You cannot say that the surge was a success, and we need to stay.  Victory means exit strategy, and it is important for [whoever the next president is going to be] to tell us what that strategy is.  

"No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided." - Barack Obama

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by: Chris LeJeune @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 08:43:15 AM CDT

I Keep (0.00 / 0)

Saying that to posters, on the few political boards like google groups, I sometimes visit or send posts, when playing with the bush bots.

They than start debating themselves in their replys and any posts they add, taking Both Sides, the writers from the right, the talking heads of the right, and the McCains.

'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson

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by: jimstaro @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:20:47 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They (0.00 / 0)

Also do the 'rove', change the purpose of the 'surge' as it was defined when developed, that's where and what McCain is doing.

'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson

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by: jimstaro @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:22:37 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

2008 Election: a referendum on the 07 troop surge (4.00 / 1)

On the foreign policy front; the republicans are trying to turn the election into a referendum on the 2007 troop surge. As if that one supposed success ought to overshadow the multitude of errors and blunders which have defined this conflict.

Given that Barack Obama opposed the war from its outset, it would have been illlogical for him to support an escalation four years in. And that is the criticism of the right. Consistent with that logic; someone fundamentally opposed to abortion, ought to favor government financed free clinics. Not logical.

Additionally, and to the best of my knowledge, the Senate was not required to vote on a "troop surge." Any more than they were expect to favor appropriate body armor, or stop loss, or multiple deployments per se. And McCain was not the combatant commander on the ground....despite what he may want the American people to think. There were multiple troop surges in 2006 (Operation Together Forward I, II), all of which failed. Did he support them?

We cannot allow the war to be quarterbacked from the middle of the game, lest we lose sight of the rational behind our starting the war, and what U.S. interest are.

Brandon E. Woods
OIF 05-07

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by: nevrfaded @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:20:55 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

CNN. (0.00 / 0)

I said that during the CNN roundtable that aired yesterday.

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by: Brian McGough @ Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:27:19 AM CDT

[ Parent ]