The rebuttal to McCain's Iraq "happy talk"
The NYTimes offers a broader context to all the "happy talk" about Iraq.
This is the bottom line. Even if the US were to completely succeed in securing Baghdad so that there were no deaths, it would not mark "victory" unless the intention is to maintain these unsustainable force levels forever.
The violence in Iraq will not resolve so long as the underlying political conflict lays unresolved, and thus far there has been no change in that, not one realized "benchmark." No legislatively passed oil law, no provincial elections, no change in deBaathification, no real power sharing, even though the most recent set of deadlines for all those benchmarks has once again come and gone.
To try and phrase the success of the current operation solely in military terms reflects either an intentional disingenuity or a severe misunderstanding of the nature of the conflict in Iraq. It is an effort to hide the reality with metrics of progress. Throughout the entire Vietnam war, even at the end, there were metrics which showed the US winning.
The effort to supply this evidence of early success has nothing to do with the reality of the Iraq war itself. This "proof" of success is being propagated solely to influence US domestic perception by those who want to continue the war.
The reality is that success or "victory" in Iraq will never be measured in statistics, it will be measured by the willingness the three sectarian groups to work together, and thus far, there are no signs of that.
But there is little sign that the Baghdad push is accomplishing its main purpose: to create an island of stability in which Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds can try to figure out how to run the country together. There has been no visible move toward compromise on the main dividing issues, like regional autonomy and more power sharing between Shiites and Sunnis.
This is the bottom line. Even if the US were to completely succeed in securing Baghdad so that there were no deaths, it would not mark "victory" unless the intention is to maintain these unsustainable force levels forever.
The violence in Iraq will not resolve so long as the underlying political conflict lays unresolved, and thus far there has been no change in that, not one realized "benchmark." No legislatively passed oil law, no provincial elections, no change in deBaathification, no real power sharing, even though the most recent set of deadlines for all those benchmarks has once again come and gone.
To try and phrase the success of the current operation solely in military terms reflects either an intentional disingenuity or a severe misunderstanding of the nature of the conflict in Iraq. It is an effort to hide the reality with metrics of progress. Throughout the entire Vietnam war, even at the end, there were metrics which showed the US winning.
The effort to supply this evidence of early success has nothing to do with the reality of the Iraq war itself. This "proof" of success is being propagated solely to influence US domestic perception by those who want to continue the war.
The reality is that success or "victory" in Iraq will never be measured in statistics, it will be measured by the willingness the three sectarian groups to work together, and thus far, there are no signs of that.
posted by mikevotes at
6:57 AM
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