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Anbar province is lost to insurgents; US says its aim is not to fight, but only to train Iraqis
From two weeks ago, must reading on Iraq from Randall Parker. A U.S. military report from the western province of Anbar says that the province is lost to the Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents. Parker also links to the following story at USA Today:
WASHINGTON (AP)—A senior American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations are “stifling” the insurgency in western Anbar province but are not strong enough to defeat it.The report proves (for the 100th time) that I am right when I say (as I’ve said 100 times over the last three years) that we are not seeking to defeat our enemies in Iraq, we are only managing the insurgency while training the Iraqis with the aim of passing the task of insurgency-management to them. This means that President Bush is blatantly lying about the war when he presents it as a messianic struggle in which we will stop at nothing short of victory. Bush’s actual policy is tread-water-and-pass-the-baton (sorry for the mixed metaphor), yet he thinks that to keep up political support for the policy he must present it to the American people as though it were Winston Churchill and Jesus Christ rolled into one. As I discussed last spring, Bush’s lies about his immigration proposal made him the biggest presidential liar in American history, bigger than Nixon, bigger than Clinton. When you add on to that his lies about Iraq, it will be a long time before he is surpassed.
Yes, yes, Bush is trying to defend us from terrorism in some ways (though not in others), while the Democrats wouldn’t defend us at all. And I give him credit for the things he’s done, and for the heat he’s taken for it. I’ve taken his side on the Patriot Act and terror surveillance. But, unlike far too many conservatives, I am not going to let the absolute awfulness of the Democrats prevent me from speaking frankly about Bush. Email entry |