The surge is working! How do we know? Because the people who have always supported the Iraq war say so!
What could be more convincing than this article from Family Security Matters, which is representative of the irrational exuberance displayed by all the pro-war types these days:
Momentum in Iraq is in the coalition’s favor, Bush said. The new U.S. strategy in Iraq is showing results in better security, with sectarian violence sharply decreasing in Baghdad and al Qaeda being displaced from former strongholds in Baghdad and in Anbar and Diyala provinces.
Seems like only yesterday, Family Security Matters was advocating the genocide of “Arab†Iraq (which would be news to the Kurdish north) and for Bush to declare himself president for life in order to “save†the victory that a “cowardly electorate†was about to abandon.  But the coup’s been called off – at least for now—since they smell sweet victory in the air. And just so I don’t seem to be picking on the juntistas at Family Security Matters, I need to point out that other pro-war sites share this optimism (see here and here).
These sites never fail to amaze. To them, there is no catastrophe coming out of Iraq that cannot be nullified. All it takes is a “K” quote — that is, a choice phrase from Robert Kagan, Fred Kagan, Donald Kagan, Kimberly Kagan, Bill Kristol, or Charles Krauthammer, then add the magic words, “Read the whole thing,” and defeatist straw is spun into triumphalist gold.
But oddly, others don’t share the blind faith in interventionism that Neocons ooze from their pores – starting with these Iraqi ingrates:
The UN refugee agency says 4.2 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their home by sectarian violence and that the number is still rising.
Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said 60,000 people a month were being uprooted, up from 50,000 a month.
She said Iraqis were finding it harder to get access to social services, and that many were choosing to leave ethnically mixed areas before they were forced to do so.
So the number of Iraqis fleeing violence has increased by another 10,000 a month – and we’re supposed to believe “the surge is working� Does it depend on what the definition of “is†is?
Actually, the only attempt to objectively measure what’s really developing in Iraq paints an overwhelmingly bleak picture:
The Government Accountability Office will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure the results of an increase in American troops in Iraq are unfulfilled eight months after President Bush announced the policy, according to three officials who discussed the report on condition of anonymity because it has not yet been made public.
But Bush & Co. have another surge in the works – and this one will attack the benchmarks themselves:
The officials also said the administration was preparing a case to play down the findings, arguing that Congress had ordered the G.A.O. to use unfair “all or nothing†standards when compiling the document.
An internal White House memorandum, prepared to respond to the office’s findings, says the report will claim the Iraqis have failed on at least 13 benchmarks. It also says the criteria lawmakers set for the report allow no room to report progress, only absolute success or failure.
The memo argues that the G.A.O. will not present a “true picture†of the situation in Iraq because the standards were “designed to lock in failure,†according to portions of the document read to The Associated Press by an official who has seen it.
If these standards were indeed “designed to lock in failure,†why did Bush agree to them and sign them into law back in May?Â
This is all too complex for me. Maybe, just as John Edwards sees “Two Americas,†there are also Two Iraqs. There’s the Iraq where a bloated, decomposing, imperial bully invaded a country out of blind rage and ambition, basing its aggression on lies, resulting in indescribable misery for millions of innocent civilians, whose anger at their occupiers burns a little more with each new atrocity.Â
Then there’s the Iraq only Neocons can see.Â
