Now Even Surgier!!!

These guys just don’t get it…

Americans. Want. This. War. Over.

Our military is over extended and facing a decades-long restoration and rebuilding phase. Our Army is being both abused and neglected. And the top-brass is doing the opposite of what needs to be done.

The so-called “surge” of troops is a sustained escalation, pure and simple, a Hail Mary pass made into triple coverage. We have been told that we can just deal, because it will last another year. Five years of fighting an urban guerrilla war.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements, making it possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year.

U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, will need to last into the spring of 2008. The military has said it would assess in September how well its counterinsurgency strategy, intended to pacify Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, is working.

"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring, said Odierno, who favors keeping experienced forces in place for now.

"What I am trying to do is to get until April so we can decide whether to keep it going or not," he said in an interview in Baghdad last week. "Are we making progress? If we're not making any progress, we need to change our strategy. If we're making progress, then we need to make a decision on whether we continue to surge."

While informing us that the troop buildup will proceed apace, and just get used to the daily deaths in double digits, damnit…

While telling us to suck it up, they also tell us it most likely ain’t gonna work…

Commanders said that even with the ongoing increase in Iraq of tens of thousands of American troops, violence could increase in coming months, and some indicators in Baghdad suggest that is already happening.

Partial data on attacks gathered from five U.S. brigades operating in Baghdad showed that total attacks since the new strategy began in February were either steady or increasing. In some cases, certain kinds of attacks dipped as the U.S. troop increase began, only to begin rising again in recent weeks. Overall, "the number of attacks has stayed relatively constant" in Baghdad, said one U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The U.S. military commands that oversee Baghdad and Iraq as a whole have so far failed to meet requests to release current statistics on attack trends, with some U.S. officers voicing concern that the information would be skewed by critics to argue that the strategy is not working.

People – Petraeus said it himself – the solution is going to be political – not military.

I realize that admitting to being the wrongest group of mother fuckers in history makes the moronic militaristic mental midgets at the AEI reluctant to suck it up and admit that they have been 180º from correct on every single thing. Yes, admitting to a degree of wrongness that is tantamount to treason is an unpalatable idea – but it is not going to taste better in six months or six years. how about instead of we suck it up and give them "two more Friedmans" - they suck it up and we call this whole thing off?

Does anyone else feel like they are in the War Room with General Ripper?

Congress needs to stand firm and take the steps available to them to end this fiasco now.

The steps I refer to include impeachment of both executives and at least one cabinet member.

Boom Town II

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At least 157 people were killed in Baghdad on Wednesday in a series of devastating bomb blasts that rocked the city. Baghdad is back to pre-Splurge levels. The adaptation seems wholly complete and the sectarian violence is back on pace.

• In the most deadly attack, a parked car-bomb exploded in the Shadriya market in a predominantly Shia neighborhood. That blast killed at least 112 people and seriously injured 115 more.

• About an hour before the Shadriya blast, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vehicle at a police checkpoint at an entrance point to Sadr City, the largest Shia neighborhood in Baghdad. That explosion killed 30 and wounded 45 more. At least eight vehicles (and presumably their human occupants) were incinerated as they sat in the gridlock waiting to clear the checkpoint.

• A car parked near the Abdul Majid hospital in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah. Eleven were killed and thirteen were wounded in that blast that also damaged the health care facility and nearby infrastructure.

• A minibus blew up in the northwestern Risafi area killed four and wounded six.

Elsewhere in Baghdad on Wednesday, four policemen were killed when their patrol was ambushed south of the city center and six pedestrians were wounded in the crossfire. In another instance of innocents gunned down in the crossfire, twp brothers were killed and a policeman wounded when a gun battle erupted in Baqouba.

Let's have the conversation about getting the hell out of there. What say you?

Baghdad Bridges, Falling Down

A second bridge has been brought down in Baghdad. It is the second time in two days a suicide bomber has brought down a major bridge.

Baghdad is a city divided by a big river. Bridges have been a vital part of the life of that city for as long as we have had written history. The two halves of the city are joined by twelve ten bridges across the Tigris.

The impact of one bridge destroyed was palpable. Two is a devastating compromise. Traffic was already a nightmare, and the city was already a frustrating maze to navigate. traffic jams will increase - and a lot of sitting ducks will be trapped in gridlock for hours every day.

This action represents a new phase of warfare. It smacks of strategic objectives and planning. It strikes at the economic heart of the city. (I'm sure somebody will be along to tell me how this is really a good thing.)

And since Larry Johnson already explained it yesterday, so I'm linking to him and going to bed.

Was this a depressing fucking week, or what?

Wanted: One War Czar

Desperate to salvage some semblance of his legacy and reputation, George Bush's latest grand scheme involves appointing a Grand Poobah War Czar to oversee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and coordinate efforts between the State and Defense departments with the military.

Only problem is, nobody wants the billet.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.

The White House has not publicly disclosed its interest in creating the position, hoping to find someone President Bush can anoint and announce for the post all at once. Officials said they are still considering options for how to reorganize the White House's management of the two conflicts. If they cannot find a person suited for the sort of specially empowered office they envision, they said, they may have to retain the current structure.

When I say nobody wants the billet, I mean nobody. Not even Keane, and the Splurge was his idea. (Dave Petraeus has been charged with implementing it, but it is not his idea. He advocated an entirely different strategy in his thesis.)

Should they find a patsy someone to take the job, the new czar would report directly to Bush and (DCI) Steven Hadley, and would have the title of assistant to the president, just as Hadley and the other highest-ranking White House officials have. The new czar would also have "tasking authority," or the power to issue directions, over other agencies, they said.

General Sheehan offered up his exact reason for declining the job: Dick Cheney.

"There's the residue of the Cheney view -- 'We're going to win, al-Qaeda's there' -- that justifies anything we did," he said. "And then there's the pragmatist view -- how the hell do we get out of Dodge and survive? Unfortunately, the people with the former view are still in the positions of most influence." Sheehan said he wrote a note March 27 declining interest.

Enough already...

It's time to

ITMFA!!!