Is the Surge Working?

Is the surge even working? It is costing a lot in lives, and in resources. Is it worth it?

By Paul Kiel - April 9, 2007, 9:14 AM

The New York Times delivers the first major report on the surge's progress this morning, a painstaking effort involving statistics and on the ground reports. The verdict?

American casualties are down in Iraq's provinces, but way up in Baghdad.
Sectarian killings are down, but increased use of car bombs has kept the civilian death toll high -- and anyway the beheadings seem to be surging again.
And as the U.S. moves to confront insurgents, the groups seem to be fracturing, making the fight increasingly confusing.

Or as an American private in the First Battalion, Fifth Cavalry puts it:

“The insurgents, they see what we’re doing and we see what they’re doing. Then we get ahead, then they figure out what we’ve done and they get ahead.

“It’s like a game of cat and mouse. It’s just a really, really smart mouse.”

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Photos from March 12th, 2007 at the Port of Tacoma

Here's a link

Cross Posted at Flickr.com:

Activists gathered at the Port of Tacoma to protest the deployment of the 4th Stryker Brigade (2nd Division) from Ft. Lewis to Iraq.

Participants gathered and held an open and inclusive democratic meeting for nearly an hour in order to discuss and strategize the night's actions.

Finally, the demonstrators took action, and the group, by some estimates around 200 individuals, took to the street and marched approximately 1/2 mile to an intersection nearby the USS Soderman - the military vessel which is accepting Stryker vehicles for shipment to Iraq.

I told the police that I believed that their barricade was an obstruction of justice, as the activists gathered were prepared and willing to serve justice and uphold the rule of law by stopping the deployment of the Stryker Brigade via actions based on nonviolent civil resistance.

The federal government has failed us. To whom and where do we turn?

I think it is to us that we turn, to our communities, to our local governments and institutions.
...
I think it is imperative that local institutions, like the Pierce, Thurston and King County Sheriff's departments; and the Tacoma Police Department, not hinder or obstruct the citizens' volition to uphold the rule of law by stopping this shipment.

I believe that to nonviolently occupy the USS Soderman in order to prevent its departure is an appropriate tactic at this time. But the relevant police forces are not allowing this democratic and humanitarian mission to fruition.

Surge Failure Before Full Implementation?

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The president just gave a rosy assessment of his plan, but insurgents have adapted and Iraqis continue to be slaughtered.

By Juan Cole

March 8, 2007 | On Tuesday, President Bush said that "even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs" that the so-called surge is working in Iraq. In fact, three weeks into what the president refers to as the "surge" and what Iraqis call the "new security plan," it's already clear that Bush's last-gasp bid for victory faces challenges that can't necessarily be surmounted by a few thousand additional troops.

With plenty of warning of the U.S. escalation, the Shiite Mahdi Army is lying low. Meanwhile, the Iraqi army and the much better equipped and trained U.S. military have made no appreciable progress against the real drivers of the country's civil war, Sunni Arab guerrillas, who have so far adapted successfully to the new deployments. And perhaps most important, a new spate of massive and deadly bombings has spread insecurity and further compromised the Iraqi government.
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Civil war...um, isn't that an oxy moron?

The surge has failed even prior to full implementation. There is no prospect of military victory in Iraq. To send more US soldiers into harm's way is akin to manslaughter. But that hasn't stopped the Bush Administration before. What's to think that they will listen to this argument now?

That is why the people of the USA must enforce accountability on our failing governmental institutions. The federal government is failing the people. In a government of, by, and for the people - it is up to us, the people, to make the necessary corrections.