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Time to debunk, once and for all, "the surge is working".
As we've already observed, the 2008 presidential election will be centered around national security and there are certain assertions that John McCain is making that require additional scrutiny.
One of them is "the surge is working". This is the most important one to challenge because it is the basis for continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. What's more, it sets a dangerous precedent, as it is being used to justify pre-emptive war.
There have been several contradictions regarding the success of this surge. But the Republicans are good at marketing only the statistics that favor their position.
Here's a link to a Washington Post article that demonstrates how the Department of Defense cherry-picks its statistics: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090502466.html
If anyone has any other info/links that can demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the surge, please post it in comments.
The Democratic party will need to push this debate.
Comments (4)
See six-page report dated march 2007 by Nir Rosen entitled "the myth of the surge"
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18722376/the_myth_of_the_surge
March 2, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
correction: March 2008
It is from the RS on the stands now.
March 2, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's John McCain in Ohio on Feb 25, 2008, quoted by Associated Press: "But I don't think there's any doubt that how they [the voters] judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge.... Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree." If you agree with McCain there, and you read that article by Nir Rosen (dated March 2008), you've got to conclude that McCain has a serious disadvantage in the upcoming general election.
March 2, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks, good read. I don't understand why the Democrats don't mount a media campaign to dispel the surge's success.
Bribing hundreds of thousands of insurgents and giving both sides weapons doesn't sound like success to me.
And the numbers are blatantly misleading. Excluded from the number of deaths in Iraq since the surge are those killed by roadside bombs, and small munitions. (I'd need verification on the exact categories they no longer include.)
March 2, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
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