Surge Worked? Why the Same Amount Left Behind? July 16, 2008
Posted by Coonsey in Foreign Policy.Tags: Barack Obama, General Petraeus, George W. Bush, iraq, John McCain, surge
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WASHINGTON – The military surge into Iraq that began more than 18 months ago has ended. But 150,000 U.S. troops remain, as many as 15,000 more than before the buildup began.
In recent days, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade, the last of the five additional combat brigades sent in by President Bush last year, left the country.Its departure marks the end of what the Pentagon calls the “surge.” And it starts the 45-day evaluation period that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress he would need to assess the security situation and determine how many more troops he could send home.
Most readers will just read the headlines – U.S. Surge in Iraq Ends. This leaves somebody like me, that actually reads the story under the headlines, questioning why bother saying the ‘surge’ has ended when we have more troops in Iraq now than what we did before the surge began?
One can only assume this story is a public relations stunt. Get those headlines in the newspapers and on television. Then sometime in late September when General Petraeus makes his appearance before Congress again, he will inform them that things are going well and that more troops will be coming home soon.
President Bush of course, will have a ‘breaking news’ press briefing to announce that ‘his administration’ wants troops to come home too and to prove that, he will have General Petraeus release another 15,000 more troops to come home by Christmas.
Senator John McCain will then make a campaign speech announcing that the surge ‘worked’, it worked so well that in fact we are drawing down more troops. “Another 15,000 troops will be home by Christmas my friends”.
If Senator Barack Obama is as smart as I think he is, he will immediately give a speech giving the ‘details’ of the surge. What was said before the surge, during the surge and afterwards.
The gist of Obama’s speech should be, “Why, if the surge has worked as President Bush and Senator McCain are claiming, aren’t even more troops coming home? Why are we back to ‘square one’ in Iraq? Why will we have the same amount of troops in Iraq during Christmas this year that we had in Iraq the day before the ‘surge’ even began in 2007?
If the ‘surge’ worked – why don’t we have fewer troops in Iraq instead of the same amount?
I hope you are correct that Obama will ask this question of McCain!
nice place Coonsey…congrats!….much better than the old!
Thanks Father Bob — It sure is different alright. Hope others will decide to come visit more often now.
Did you hear the latest McCain jab? He’s claiming Obama is more like BUSH then HE is…..LOL What a Laugh. Sounds like something Rove would start up.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/mccain_camps_new_attack_obama.php
Considering that Bush seems to be taking all of Obama’s ideas to heart now, perhaps Obama should have started running 7 years ago. LOL! Where are those critics that said sitting down and talking to your enemies was lunacy as well as naive, at now? I will admit that I was sort of lukewarm toward Obama for a while, but he’s starting to look better by the day.
Well of course the GOP are claiming their WORDING is different compared to Obama’s (”time horizon” vs “withdraw timeline”, “It’s foolish to say you’ll bomb in Pakistan (an allie)” and “Bush admin just announced they’ve shot missiles into Pakistan in hopes of killing a possible high value target…” vs “OBAMA -If Pakistan does not act and we know of a high value target, yes we will act”….etc..).
Obama also started talking about Afghanistan almost 2 years ago, needing more troops — now McCain and the GOP are doing it. Even having the general mention that Al qaeda MAY be moving to Afghanistan now. Now Maliki and the Iraqi’s also want a timeline.
Experience is great but a little COMMON SENSE goes a long way.