What Are We Doing in Iraq?

I hear almost no one saying we are winning. Bush's own War Czar is saying we need to institute a draft. Violence has continued going up. Shi'ites AND Sunnis are shooting at us...when they aren't shooting at eachother. The numbers are really quite staggering, but they sure don't show we are winning. Let's look at just a few figures:

5000: "Diehard" insurgents the Pentagon estimated to be fighting on July 28, 2003.

20-30,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in October 2006.

70,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in March 2007.

Wow, is THAT winning? MORE insurgents year by year. We have a MORE than ten fold increase in insurgents in Iraq! THAT'S winning?

How are we doing with those hearts and minds:

69%: Iraqis who say U.S. presence worsens security situation (polled in March 2007).

71%: Iraqis who want U.S. troops out within a year (polled in September 2006).

And, coincidentally:

71%: Americans who want U.S. to withdraw troops by April 2008 (polled in July 2007).

How is that being reflected in Congress:

52%: U.S. Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

8%: Republican Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

When John McCain went to Iraq to show all was well, he had to go with a massive military escourt and wear a bullet proof vest. And the next day the very market he visited was bombed. Our control of the nation barely extends outside of the Green Zone and often doesn't even completely cover THAT area. The most popular leaders in the nation are those who hate us the most...which is why we haven't allowed a fully free election. About the only way the administration could claim a decrease in violence was to arbitrarily exclude suicide bombings from the figures.

Post-al-Qaeda Iraq? That is the biggest falsehood you ever said. Before we invaded, al-Qaeda had almost no presence in Iraq with the exception of a tiny Kurdish group fighting against Hussein. They only entered Iraq on our heels. We basically opened Iraq up to al-Qaeda. So I would say this is the period of greatest al-Qaeda presence in Iraq. Is THAT what you mean by winning? Helping al-Qaeda expand into Iraq for the first time ever?

Post-Baathist. Well, you'd think, but the Iraqi government has been BEGGING the Baathists to come back and help out. In fact, by now we are "winning" so well that even WE are begging the Baathists, including members of Hussein's own intelligence service who conducted torture, to come back into the Iraqi government. Does that sound like Iraq is post-Baathist? It sounds more like the Baathists are making a comeback with our blessings.

WMD? No one, NO ONE thinks Hussein had WMD. The CIA has reported that there were no WMD in Iraq. Bush's own inspectors said there were no WMD. BUSH HIMSELF admitted no WMD were found. Every single intelligence agency in the world has said there were no WMD. I guess you are referring to Rick Santorum's pulling something out of his ass during the last election? How'd THAT work for him? Oh, yeah...he lost to Casey 41-59%. His claim was so full of shit he was pretty much litterally laughed out of office.

SO, winning in your book means desperately calling for a draft, being shot at by ALL sides in a civil war that we can't control, being unable to set foot outside the Green Zone, al-Qaeda thriving where they never were before, Baathists returning WITH OUR HELP.

Winning, according to that increasingly tiny minority who still back the Bush/McCain quagmire, must look like this:

and this: (from the New England Journal of Medicine via The Memory Hole)

Because that is about all we are getting from this war: dead and wounded Americans and all for NO GAIN to our nation.

Oh yeah...and how did that support for Bush's quagmire work for John McCain? Well, being cheerleader for Bush has dropped him to being tied in fourth place with Huckabee with a whopping 8% (7/31/07 poll).

And come on. NO ONE, other than the loser, Rick Santorum, is claiming there were WMD found in Iraq.