skippy the bush kangaroo

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

from the department of "up is down"

agence france presse tells us that the pentagon insists the increase in violence in iraq is proof that the surge is working:

the pentagon on wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern iraq, where us-backed government forces were battling shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."

pentagon press secretary geoff morrell said it showed that the iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against shiite extremists in the southern port of basra…

at least 20 people were reported to have been killed in two days of fighting in basra and another 20 in clashes in the sadr city district of baghdad, a bastion of shiite militias that follow radical cleric moqtada al-sadr.

the violence raised fears that a unilateral ceasefire called by sadr last year, which us military officials have credited with helping to bring down last year's high levels of violence in iraq, was coming apart…

"this has just begun this week," he said. "but i think at this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge," referring to the sharp hike in us troops in iraq from earlier last year to quell violence.

he said it was a success "in the sense that the iraqi government has grown and increased in capability to the point where they now feel confident going after shia extremists in a part of the country that they had not exerted great influence over."
at this rate, once we've won, everyone in iraq will be dead!

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posted by skippy at 7:45 PM |

3 Comments:

Like in Vietnam.

Pablo
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 8:17 AM PDT  
at this rate, once we've won, everyone in iraq will be dead!

I think that's the point. After all, they're not making any progress in writing legislation to give all of their oil to us...
commented by Blogger SB Gypsy, 9:02 AM PDT  
Good catch, skip. They've been doing this for some time - if the violence goes down, we're winning! If the violence goes up, it means the evildoers are desperate, because we're winning! If the violence is up, we can't bring the troops home! If violence is down, we can't bring them home, because victory (whatever that is, in a civil war and fractured country) is right around the corner (of a 13-sided building, apparently)! Just throw some more McCarthyist language and another Friedman Unit at it, and punt 'til there's another president!
commented by Blogger Batocchio, 3:24 PM PDT  

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