27 March 2008
It’s hard to find some war reality coming from the Bush administration. Petraeus seems to say only what the administration wants to hear, painting things with a rosy brush. It looks more and more that the “successful surge” was just temporary. Fresh fighting is taking place in Baghdad and in Basra, where Iraqi forces are fighting Shiite militias who are controlling Basra, the third largest city in Iraq, and is a port city with lots of commerce and trade and Iraq’s access to the sea. The area around the city has refineries and large oil resources.
This renewed fighting is going to be an excuse for slowing American troop removal. After the security gains of last fall there has been a steady increase of violence in the last several months. The security situation in Baghdad is growing worse daily. Once again we need to remember that the purpose of the surge was to allow the Iraqi government to get organized, which they have not done in a timely fashion. We are stuck in a situation which is growing worse daily. The death toll of both Iraqi civilians and U.S. military is on the rise. This is not supposed to be happening and is not being properly addressed by the Bush administration in their reports about the situation on the ground. Since this situation will, no doubt, continue until Bush leaves office and the next president, I hope, will have the ability to pull us out of this mess.
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