Define ‘progress’

July 7, 2007

The discord among Republicans on the Hill over Iraq may be palpable, but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) just returned from Baghdad, and wouldn’t you know it, he agrees wholeheartedly with Bush, Cheney, McCain, and Lieberman.

In contrast with the stalled political progress, Graham said, the surge — the dispatch of 30,000 more U.S. troops that Bush began in January — is yielding clear results.

“The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”

As Faiz noted, Lieberman also contended recently that the escalation has the enemy “on the run.”

Of course, there’s war supporters’ reality, and then there’s the reality for the rest of us.

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 yesterday.

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 yesterday 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 yesterday to prevent an outbreak of revenge killings. […]

Iraq’s government, for its part, has proven “uneven” in delivering on its commitments under the strategy, the report said, stating that public pledges by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have in many cases produced no concrete results. Iraqi leaders have made “little progress” on the overarching political goals that the stepped-up security operations are intended to help advance, the report said, calling reconciliation between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni factions “a serious unfulfilled objective.”

A week ago marked the end of the deadliest quarter for U.S. troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. And July is proving to be no less discouraging.

Suicide bombings killed nearly 50 people and wounded dozens in two Shiite villages north of Baghdad, including a large truck explosion Saturday that ripped through an outdoor market and buried victims in rubble, officials said.

Separately, eight American troops and a British soldier were killed in fighting over two days.

The blasts suggested that Sunni militants are regrouping to launch their deadliest form of attack — suicide explosions, often against Shiites — in regions further away from Baghdad, beyond the edges of a three-week old U.S. offensive on the capital’s northern flank.

But don’t worry, Lindsey Graham sees progress. And since his track record on the war has been sterling to date, I’m sure we should all take his word for it.

“We literally have the enemy on the run….”

I wonder how many soldiers grind their teeth when they hear some dickhead talk like this? “Bring ’em on,” “Last Throes,” I believe “The enemy on the run,” has already been used a number of times and every time it is “the enemy,” shows that the only place they’re running is to buy more explosives and bullets.

The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al Qaida all over the country.

No shit, because as every non-Koolaid drinker knew from the start, al Qaida is about as welcome in Iraq as a turd in a punch bowl. Nice of him to acknowledge that the population is fixing a problem that his master helped create.

Now, if only the good Sinator will tell us what to do about the Sunnis rejecting the Shi’ites and vice versa. Not to mention the fact that both groups are pretty strenuously rejecting the invaders.

  • “The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said.

    I wish someone would ask these bozos, “What would things look like if they were going badly, then?” And if a completely pessimistic response were given (e.g., dozens of American soldiers killed every day), to follow up with, “So anything short of that counts as success?” and “Do you think we should stay until that happens?”

  • There’s 2 things I don’t like about Graham…his face. (old joke but totally appropriate). Talk about someone who would stab you in the back

    “…The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”

    This is not something he can know from a visit. This is what he’s been told. Why is he wasting tax payer money flying to Iraq? They could just as easily tell him what to say over here, because you know he will never see anything different than what Bush Administration sees. So why fly there?

    Bush will never leave Iraq no matter what he says, unless he is forced to leave. That’s why he built an embassy the size of a city there plus permanent bases. None of his people will ever admit to failure no matter what. The “splurge” will always be almost working or close to being successful.

    Any Senator who goes to Iraq and claims progress and success is another traitor who cares more for the war profiteers and politics than America. We must never forget their treason.

  • For the neocons: the more muslims are killed, regardless of what side they’re on.. it’s considered progress. When civilians are caught in the cross fire, then they’re considered al-quada insurgents, unless there is an investigative reporter who challenges the claims.

    Of course that wouldn’t be ‘politically correct’ to overtly show their bigotry towards an entire segment of the population. So… the higher the body count, the more proof of progress.

  • I assume Linseed Oil Graham isn’t up for re-election in ’08. So 540 dead civilians in Baghdad in June is a clear sign of progress. I guess under the new definition where every person with a weapon is Al Qaeda regardless if they are Shia or Sunni has cleared things up for them. Time to revise the old lawyer joke. What’s the difference between a whore and a Republicancer? There are some things a whore won’t do for money.

  • “We literally have the enemy on the run.”
    They’re insurgents, that’s part of their tactics.

    Also, considering that the US is now targeting Sadr City, does that mean that the Shi’ites are also “the enemy”? Does Lindsey even know who the real “enemy”is, because I sure as hell don’t.

    “The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al Qaida all over the country.”

    Well, there’s a whole 2% of the insurgency you don’t have to worry about now.

  • Trying to ‘corner’ multiple groups of amorphous insurgencies is like trying to eat soup with a fork. You can move it around, but you just can’t get it in your mouth.

  • The target of most US action in Iraq is the existence of an institutional opposition party. Progress is being made — the Democratic Party is daily more complicit in the disaster that is Iraq, increasing the chances that it will be destroyed.

    Destroying the Democratic Party, doing a Mulroney on it, has always been a main, sometimes even a primary goal, of US actions in Iraq.

    One-party rule, and the ability for a generation to dictate fiscal policy, craft the regulatory environment, appoint the judges, write tax law, and harness the security apparatus of the state in wartime to advancing the party’s agenda, is worth any expenditure of blood and treasure. The oil is just lagniappe.

    It’s irrelevant that the Democrats are self-destructing — the how doesn’t matter.

  • Yeah, results alright, more dead. The grand game of Whack-a-mole that was predicted is in full swing.“The build-up of US troops in Iraq is now complete. The level of violence has not decreased, with attacks shifting away from places where US forces are concentrated, such as Baghdad and Anbar, into other, less defended provinces, says the BBC’s Defence and Security correspondent Rob Watson.” Yesterday 130 dead and 240 wounded from one f__king bomb, but the Iraqi PM says the insurgents are getting desperate. The Iraqi PM is starting to sound like “Last Throes” Cheney. Bu$h’s lackey General BetrayUs says there will be more of the same. I take that to mean more dead Americans and more dead Iraqis. How is the supposed government doing since the Sunnis are boycotting sessions?

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