Slow posting for the past week and so much going on. I'm still migrating to the new blogger, unnecessarily tedious ... patience. Here's a quick update:
General Petraeus and Crocker give their assessment of the surge in the senate, to me it was a pathetic show of partisanship. The two men concurred fully with the earlier assessments of their boss, Bush. They talked about the progress made in Anbar province, where US paid cash for Sunni tribes to fight Al Qaeda, and in some areas of Baghdad. Collaborating with Sunni tribes who mostly opposed the Iraqi government, doesn't necessarily mean they're supporting US occupation. Whether progress was made or not, it sure didn't go to the root causes of the problem, primarily the occupation and the sectarian violence.
So one of the major holes in the "surge is working" argument is that it counts factors such as Mahdi army's freeze of its activities as part of the "winning" plan, but Mahdi army is still here. Essentially it was a win for president Bush, he made the case of those arguing to pull out the troops that much harder.
General Petraeus and Crocker give their assessment of the surge in the senate, to me it was a pathetic show of partisanship. The two men concurred fully with the earlier assessments of their boss, Bush. They talked about the progress made in Anbar province, where US paid cash for Sunni tribes to fight Al Qaeda, and in some areas of Baghdad. Collaborating with Sunni tribes who mostly opposed the Iraqi government, doesn't necessarily mean they're supporting US occupation. Whether progress was made or not, it sure didn't go to the root causes of the problem, primarily the occupation and the sectarian violence.
So one of the major holes in the "surge is working" argument is that it counts factors such as Mahdi army's freeze of its activities as part of the "winning" plan, but Mahdi army is still here. Essentially it was a win for president Bush, he made the case of those arguing to pull out the troops that much harder.
Elsewhere, it seems the rumors about Israel itching for a war with Syria this summer was very much true. Israel jet fighters went deep into Syrian territory before they were detected. It doesn't mean that Israel wanted war right then but it means it's getting ready.
Speculation about an imminent attack on Iran by either Israel or US (which is the same anyway) is growing (link).
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