The Surge: Two Views
One of the truly reasonable, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, says the surge is working:
Thanks to Gen. David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, and the strength and skill of the American soldiers fighting there, al Qaeda in Iraq is now being routed from its former strongholds in Anbar and Diyala provinces. Many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, meanwhile, are uniting with us against al Qaeda, alienated by the barbarism and brutality of their erstwhile allies.
As Gen. Petraeus recently said of al Qaeda in Iraq: "We have them off plan."
Even oft-barking moonbat Sen. Levin joins with Sen. John Warner in praising the surge upon their return from a fact-finding mission in Iraq:
"We have seen indications that the surge of additional brigades to Baghdad and its immediate vicinity and the revitalized counter-insurgency strategy being employed have produced tangible results in making several areas of the capital more secure. We are also encouraged by continuing positive results — in al-Anbar Province, from the recent decisions of some of the Sunni tribes to turn against Al Qaeda and cooperate with coalition force efforts to kill or capture its adherents," the two said in a statement issued after leaving the country.
But don't look for the left to embrace this viewpoint. Or even to acknowledge it.
CBS is "framing the argument" against Gen. Petraeus, and the UK Times boldly prints a Democrat think tank quote in the headline, calling him ‘General Betraeus’.
Meanwhile a Reuters headline scream, U.S. foreign policy experts oppose Bush's surge and we are told:
More than half of top U.S. foreign policy experts oppose President George W. Bush's troop increase as a strategy for stabilizing Baghdad, saying the plan has harmed U.S. national security, according to a new survey.
Upon closer inspection, we see that the "survey" was conducted by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine. For the uninitiated, CAP is the brainchild of socialist George Soros and Clintonista John Podesta. And Foreign Policy magazine is financed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, another lefty think tank that maintains offices in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow and Washington and was once headed up by Soviet spy Alger Hiss.
Finally, courtesy of the limousine liberals of Hollywood, will be a deluge of propaganda aimed at the American voter:
Encouraged by widespread opposition to the conflict in Iraq, Hollywood filmmakers are preparing to unleash an unprecedented wave of war movies on cinemagoers.
That should, of course, read "wave of anti-war movies".
So to counter the left, please go read The Surge in Action. Money quote:
"People ask me, 'Is the surge working?'," Colonel Wayne Grigsby, 3rd Brigade commander, said to me. "And I say, 'How can it not be?' We're in these areas that no soldiers have been for months and years, we've got al Qaeda , JAM , and JAI discombobulated, and we're showing the people there--people who might not have seen an American soldier in years--a sustained presence, catching bad guys, building checkpoints, and making life safer for them."
"Again, I say, 'How can it not be working?'"
Precisely.
Blog post #6768 in category
Iraq
posted 20 August 07