Why am I thanking a Democratic politician (and reputed Bush dog, at that) on the front page of this blog? Because, after taking one of the the Pentagon censored sponsored Iraq tours reserved for members of Congress, “serious scholars like Michael O’Hanlon and (of course) Our Dear Leader, he had the wisdom to see past the facade, and the courage to speak the truth about the situation in Iraq, fully aware that his comments will be distorted in the coming American media love fest/marketing campaign for General Petraeus’ report on the “Surge.” Here’s what he had to say on MsNBC (courtesy of The Raw Story):
“Our troops are amazing. They have done what has been asked of them,” Altmire began. “But the flip side of that, unfortunately, the Iraqi government is in complete disarray. And the purpose of the surge was to allow the Iraqi government … the opportunity to move forward. I think we’re worse off … today than we were six or eight months ago.”
“I support a timeline as a strategy for success,” Altmire said, emphasizing that the president had vetoed Congress’s attempt to establish a timeline for US redeployment out of Iraq.” It’s the only leverage we have for the Iraqi government to know that we’re serious.”
“There’s no sense of urgency there,” Altmire concluded. “They think we’re going to be there forever to hold their hand while they posture and play political games and bicker with each other. … They have to step up and run their own government.”
He’s right, of course. The whole idea of the surge was that it would allow the Iraqi government some breathing space to reach political solutions on the many issues facing the country such as the division of oil revenues, sectarian conflict, power sharing among the Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds, etc. Indeed, that was the original selling point for the surge: that increased security provided by American troops would enable the government to focus on the other political issues that are dividing the country and prolonging the conflict.
Sadly, little if anything had been done on that front. No matter how many troops we send to Iraq (and we are already at the breaking point in terms of our ability to sustain the increased troop levels required by the architects of the Surge strategy), unless a viable political solution is reached by all of the contending parties in Iraq, the war will continue unabated. American forces may be able to increase security in some sectors when they are present there, but unless we are willing to insert many more troops (upwards of 150,000 or more in my estimate) we are unlikely to curb the violence there to any significant extent.
Indeed, the latest figures for August indicate that Iraqi civilian deaths are on the rise again, despite the presence of 160,000 US troops and a large, but unknown, number of private security contractors paid by the US government. And refugees continue to flee Iraq at the rate of 30,000+ each month. So no matter what metric you use, the Surge has been an utter failure to date.
So thank you Rep. Altmire for speaking the truth about the failure of the Bush escalation known as the “Surge.” I only wish more Democrats, and especially those with bigger megaphones (i.e., the Presidential candidates) would start shouting the same message each and every day.
Only if we repeat this message clearly, constantly and consistently via all the means at our disposal (i.e., blogs, candidate speeches, press conferences, protest rallies, etc.) will the media begin to report on the truth in Iraq. As the conservatives taught us, Democrats need to stop worrying about how they will be portrayed for voicing their views. They will gain far more credibility and respect for sticking to their guns and speaking the truth about the Bush regime’s reign of error than they will by triangulating around a non-existent “moderate” center.
