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Saturday, October 20, 2007

So let's send the children of everyone who supports this war
Posted by Jill | 6:11 PM
Somehow Moveon.org doesn't seem quite so out in left field anymore:

Despite hopes that the U.S. military "surge" in Iraq would encourage economic and political headway and sap the strength of the insurgency, very little lasting progress has been achieved, according to a new U.S. report.

The study, based on the assessments of dozens of U.S. military and civilian officials working at local levels across Iraq, runs counter to the optimistic forecasts by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It said that with the exception of Anbar province, there has been "little progress" toward political reconciliation, a key U.S. goal in Iraq.

Withdrawal of U.S. troops would produce "open battlegrounds of ethnic cleansing" in some Baghdad neighborhoods and elsewhere in Iraq, the report said.

In high-profile congressional hearings last month, Petraeus and Crocker testified that the addition of 28,000 American troops in Iraq, ordered last winter by President Bush, was reducing violence and providing opportunity for economic projects, government reform and political reconciliation.

The troop "surge" is temporary, with the first of the reinforcement units scheduled to leave Iraq before Christmas.

But instead of charting progress, the new report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, warns that Iraq "will require years of steady engagement" before there is significant progress in providing Iraqis with power and clean water, jobs, health resources and government that works.

"Iraq's complex and overlapping sectarian, political, and ethnic conflicts, as well as the difficult security situation, continue to hinder progress in promoting economic development, rule of law, and political reconciliation," the report cautioned.


And all of this could have been predicted before the war. All of this SHOULD have been predicted before the war. If I, no Middle East expert, knew that Sunni and Shi'a were going to be at each other's throats without a strongman keeping the violence at bay, it shouldn't have taken a genius at the Pentagon to see what the consequences would be.

And it shouldn't have been so difficult for Hillary Clinton -- and yes, John Edwards -- to figure out. Edwards has at least admitted he was wrong. Clinton defended her vote until just the last month or so. Now she would have us believe that SHE will end the war the day she takes office.

Fat chance. On both accounts.

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