If your son or daughter is serving under the leadership of
General George W. Casey, God help him or her. This man is a fool
and a disgrace to the U.S. Army. Today during a press conference
in Baghdad with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
Zalmay Khalilzad, General Casey decided to play politics and apple
polish the Bush Administration rather than tell the truth.
According to Casey:
The Baghdad security plan continues to have a dampening effect on sectarian violence,
Extra
U.S. troops dispatched to Baghdad have had a decisive effect. . .
Iraqi security forces operating in and around Baghdad also are making
significant contributions in reducing the violence, he added.Iraq isn”t awash in sectarian violence, . . .Most sectarian
violence in Iraq is concentrated across a 30-mile radius around
Baghdad, and, 90 percent of all violence in Iraq is taking place in
five of the country”s 18 provinces.
What planet is this man on? Is he auditioning to be the Army’s version of Baghdad Bob?
Unfortunately, today’s comment are part of a pattern. Casey made many of these same stupid claims last March:
But I will tell you the
violence in Iraq is not necessarily widespread. There is sectarian
tension and there is sectarian violence, but it’s primarily focused in
the center of the country around Baghdad.In
15 of the 18 provinces, there are six or less incidents of violence a
day. That’s not just sectarian. That’s all kinds of violence. In 12 of
the provinces, it’s two or less incidents of violence a day. So the
country is not awash in sectarian violence.
Alright, here are the facts (based on news reports).
When Casey made those comments last March there were 1092 Iraqi soldier
and civilan deaths. That number soared to 2966 in August and 3539
in September. When John Hopkins’ School of Public Health
updated its 2004 survey of civilian deaths in Iraq (which estimated as
many as 655,000 Iraqis have died since the war started in 2003), the
Iraqi Government responded by announcing its plan to restrict
information on civilian casualties. Nonetheless, the preliminary
data for for October (as of 23 October) points to at least twice as
many dead Iraqis compared to March 2006.
Casey foolishly and ignorantly takes comfort in the fact that most
of the provinces do not have daily sectarian strife. Shows how
little this crazy General knows about Iraq. The majority of the
Iraqi population lives in the provinces that are wracked by sectarian
violence.
So, here’s the bottomline–since U.S. troops beefed up their
presence in Baghdad Iraqis are dying in greater numbers. But
Iraqis are not the only ones paying a terrible price. U.S. troops
are dying at escalating rates, with October marking the largest loss of
life by U.S. soldiers and Marines in 2006.
This kind of rah-rah bullshit from a ground commander is
criminal. Unfortunately, he is gladly carrying water for a
Commander-in-Chief who insists we must stay the course but denies
saying that we must stay the course. I guess Casey believes he
must behave like President Bush and endorse deception, delusion, and
lies. But in making this Faustian bargain, Casey seems oblivious
to the price being paid in blood by our men and women serving in
Iraq. This may explain in part why some U.S. soldiers and Marines
are petitioning their members of Congress to end the war in Iraq.
