Pentagon Report: ‘Surge’ Only Shifts Violence
Further evidence that the U.S. military buildup in Iraq is failing to quell violence in the country came Wednesday with the release of a Pentagon report detailing the sobering statistics about widespread bloodshed in Baghdad and other areas.Further evidence that the U.S. military buildup in Iraq is failing to quell violence in the country came Wednesday with the release of a Pentagon report detailing the sobering statistics about widespread bloodshed in Baghdad and other areas.
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Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to a Pentagon report released [Wednesday].
The report — the first comprehensive statistical overview of the new U.S. military strategy in Iraq — coincided with renewed fears of sectarian violence after the bombing [Wednesday] of the same Shiite shrine north of Baghdad that was attacked in February 2006, unleashing a spiral of retaliatory bloodshed. Iraq’s government imposed an immediate curfew in Baghdad [Wednesday] to prevent an outbreak of revenge killings.
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The Islamic State was supposed to be reeling from U.S.-led airstrikes. Yet the group was able to capture Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and is now consolidating control over that strategically important city.
A key overlooked fact about the much-ballyhooed "surge is working" argument in Iraq is that the U.S. military actually paid some former insurgents $10 a day to help American troops keep the peace in parts of the country. But what happens when that setup changes in volatile regions like Anbar?
President Bush capped off his administration's weeklong campaign to convince America that the "surge" is working with a televised address on Thursday. Nestled among assorted pseudo-announcements and stale slogans was a telling pitch from a president who has repeatedly revised his motive for war: "Our mission in Iraq will evolve."
The "What, me worry?" president paid a cheerful visit to U.S. troops in Iraq's Anbar province, an auspiciously timed trip (his third since the war began in 2003) that falls mere days before Congress is scheduled to hear Army Gen. David Petraeus' Iraq "progress" report. For another status report (read: reality check), follow this link.
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