Is the surge working?
By MICHAEL D. EVANS
Published: September 4, 2007
Is the surge working? That is the question US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus will be called upon to answer next week as they testify before Congress.
The problem is that the American people could care less about what is happening 120 miles from Baghdad in the mostly Sunni Anbar province.
President George W. Bush dropped in for a surprise visit to “assure our friends that the American people do not abandon our friends." While the American people do not abandon their friends, the American government sometimes does. Twice before in Iraq we asked its brave Kurdish people to resist and fight Saddam Hussein and left them to be slaughtered by that ruthless dictator.
The $400 billion question is: Where's the beef? The Iraqi government is not in Anbar; nor is US money. If this is all about success, why did President Bush not go to Erbil instead, where 23% of the Iraqi nation lives in stability and democracy? Could it be because Kurdistan is dominated by liberal Sunni Muslims, and Bush did not want to offend the vast majority of Iraqi fundamentalists?
Why has the US deserted our base in Erbil and why are our Iraqi Kurdish allies fighting with old Russian AK47s captured from Saddam Hussein? Why would the US not want to invest in success in a place where there have been only two terrorist attacks in two years, and both of them have been by al-Qaeda?
It's time for President Bush to tell the American people – the war has been mismanaged; al-Maliki’s government is corrupt and cowardly; and surging to stability is not possible.
Since the majority of Bush supporters are Evangelical Christians, why not invite them for a “come to Jesus” fireside chat? Maybe his Sunday school teacher can help him with his speech: “Babylon the great is fallen and has become a dwelling place for demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird…because she has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. “ (Rev. 18:2)
"Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." (Gen. 11: 9) The truth is, Evangelical Christians consider Babylon cursed and no more believe that it will be blessed than the Arabs and Jews will sit down together to sup matza ball soup.
So what do we do now?
As Colin Powell has said many times: "If you break it, you own it." He did not say, "If you break it, get out as fast as possible." To ask Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to host a smoke and mirror magic show and unite Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'ites into a cohesive government is a lot easier than asking Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell to tie the knot.
Yes, the Democratic Party is determined to pull out of the killing fields, whatever the cost in the lives of our allies. This is not to speak of Osama and Ahmadinejad, who will have won the Middle East Power Ball lottery.
The simple fact is the president needs to admit that stability and democracy is stupidity. Mullahs, madrassas, and mosques have been around for a very long time.
Iraq is in fact now the central front on the war on terrorism, as Osama bin-Laden planned. It's time to get out of the cities and fight the war on terrorism from the desert. Anything else is selling the American people a partial success – kind of like buying the farm and finding out you don't own the dirt. Anyone want to buy a tree house?
Published: September 4, 2007
Is the surge working? That is the question US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus will be called upon to answer next week as they testify before Congress.
The problem is that the American people could care less about what is happening 120 miles from Baghdad in the mostly Sunni Anbar province.
President George W. Bush dropped in for a surprise visit to “assure our friends that the American people do not abandon our friends." While the American people do not abandon their friends, the American government sometimes does. Twice before in Iraq we asked its brave Kurdish people to resist and fight Saddam Hussein and left them to be slaughtered by that ruthless dictator.
The $400 billion question is: Where's the beef? The Iraqi government is not in Anbar; nor is US money. If this is all about success, why did President Bush not go to Erbil instead, where 23% of the Iraqi nation lives in stability and democracy? Could it be because Kurdistan is dominated by liberal Sunni Muslims, and Bush did not want to offend the vast majority of Iraqi fundamentalists?
Why has the US deserted our base in Erbil and why are our Iraqi Kurdish allies fighting with old Russian AK47s captured from Saddam Hussein? Why would the US not want to invest in success in a place where there have been only two terrorist attacks in two years, and both of them have been by al-Qaeda?
It's time for President Bush to tell the American people – the war has been mismanaged; al-Maliki’s government is corrupt and cowardly; and surging to stability is not possible.
Since the majority of Bush supporters are Evangelical Christians, why not invite them for a “come to Jesus” fireside chat? Maybe his Sunday school teacher can help him with his speech: “Babylon the great is fallen and has become a dwelling place for demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird…because she has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. “ (Rev. 18:2)
"Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." (Gen. 11: 9) The truth is, Evangelical Christians consider Babylon cursed and no more believe that it will be blessed than the Arabs and Jews will sit down together to sup matza ball soup.
So what do we do now?
As Colin Powell has said many times: "If you break it, you own it." He did not say, "If you break it, get out as fast as possible." To ask Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to host a smoke and mirror magic show and unite Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'ites into a cohesive government is a lot easier than asking Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell to tie the knot.
Yes, the Democratic Party is determined to pull out of the killing fields, whatever the cost in the lives of our allies. This is not to speak of Osama and Ahmadinejad, who will have won the Middle East Power Ball lottery.
The simple fact is the president needs to admit that stability and democracy is stupidity. Mullahs, madrassas, and mosques have been around for a very long time.
Iraq is in fact now the central front on the war on terrorism, as Osama bin-Laden planned. It's time to get out of the cities and fight the war on terrorism from the desert. Anything else is selling the American people a partial success – kind of like buying the farm and finding out you don't own the dirt. Anyone want to buy a tree house?
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