60 Minutes reality check on Bush/McCain surge

For all the cheering about how the "surge" worked, they are forgetting details. Yes, violence is down but considering how bad it was, it has just gone from hell to hellish. If you read ICasualties.org for the news from Iraq and Afghanistan, you'll see what I mean. These are the numbers since the "surge" of Iraq.
2007
Jan. 83
Feb. 81
March 81
April 104
May 126
June 101
July 80
Aug.84
Sept. 66
Oct. 38
Nov. 37
Dec. 23 and it was the highest death count year since 2003

This year, well the numbers went up and down and none of them include the deaths of the suicides once they came back home.

2008
Jan. 40
Feb. 29
March 39
April 52
May 19
June 29
July 13
Aug. 23
so far for Sept. 4
http://icasualties.org/oif/


Bombs still blow up the soldiers and the civilians. The government is still a mess and there are still police on the take, Iraqi soldiers still infiltrate the units and still seek revenge. The troops, well, they are still waiting for the Washington politicians to get their act in gear and finish this off. It's not happening. With 2,000 Georgian forces pulled out near the Iranian border it only added to the problem of before when the UK forces dwindled down along with the other nations who have pulled out their forces, this "surge" was nothing more than a replacement for boots from other nations. This is not even touching what's going on in Afghanistan. The sooner Iraq is controlled the better and the troops can pull out of there, but if McCain keeps selling his "the surge worked" and talking heads keep refusing to use their brains and pay attention, the great the chance of the troops staying in Iraq forever.

After reading the following you may finally understand that this is not what the generals wanted but only what Bush/McCain wanted. Most of what clamed things down was al-Sadr calling off his army and commanders on the ground using their brains paying off the militia killing the troops to get them to stop. al-Maliki however does not want to continue the practice and says he has no plans of putting them on his every growing payroll.

Woodward: Military Brass Opposed Surge
Also Tells 60 Minutes U.S. Has Secret Military Capability; And That U.S. Has Been Spying On Iraq's PM
Comments 163 Page 1 of 4
Sept. 7, 2008


(CBS) A year and a half since the surge in Iraq, violence is the lowest it has been since the invasion. The idea of throwing another 30,000 troops into Iraq was a desperate gamble in a dark time. And only now are we finding out just how much opposition there was by the nation's top military leaders. That's among the revelations in a new book by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward.

"The War Within" is Woodward's fourth insider account from the Bush White House.

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley sat down with Woodward for his first interview in advance of the book's release and asked him about the war within the administration after the surge was proposed by civilians in the White House.


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Asked what the generals at the Pentagon thought when presented with the idea of a surge, Woodward told Pelley, "They think that it won't work. And the president actually at one point goes and meets with them. And the Army chief of staff, General [Peter] Schoomaker, says 'You can't add five brigades, it will take many more,' 'What about another crisis?' 'We don't have troops for this,' 'What about the damage your doing to the force, the young kids who see nothing but endless rotations?'"

"What does General Casey, sitting in Baghdad, think of having additional troops?" Pelley asked.

"He thinks that Baghdad is a troop sump-a place you can put endless numbers of troops in. And he does not want to add force," Woodward said.

"The president, who has said in public, endless times, that he relies on his generals to tell him what they need, is actually going his own way here," Pelley remarked.

"That's right," Woodward agreed. "The records of the joint chiefs show that the idea of five brigades came from the White House, not from anybody except the White House."
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/60minutes/main4415771.shtml