New Plans

The Washington Post reported in this morning's edition that "In a speech today unveiling his own revised security plan, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to publicly welcome additional U.S. troops, a condition requested by the Bush administration." One would hope so. Obviously, if we're going to flood Iraq with thousands of additional soldiers, the support of the Iraqi government would seem to be crucial. As the Post continues, "Maliki's cooperation is pivotal to Bush's own efforts." So what do I see in my Associated Press coverage:

Al-Maliki is uneasy about the possible introduction of more U.S. troops, aides said, and he has repeatedly refused U.S. demands to crush the militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the prime minister's most powerful backers.
Sami al-Askari, an al-Maliki political adviser, told The Associated Press on Friday that al-Maliki had not acquiesced to a reported White House plan to send as many as 9,000 more U.S. troops to Baghdad alone.

Oops? I'm not even sure. Once again, we see that this whole thing is backwards and horribly ill-conceived. Note that Maliki's new plan and Bush's new plan (which may or may not be the same plan) seem exactly the same as Operation Forward Together, a surge-based Baghdad security plan implemented in June 2006 that failed utterly.

1/6/07 10:30AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

I wonder if Republican dissenters could alleviate the coming Iraqi disaster in court.

[2 beats]

What? You've never heard of a blue surge suit?

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on January 6, 2007 12:08 PM

"Once again, we see that this whole thing is backwards and horribly ill-conceived."

Of course, if you accept the rather obvious fact that the the surge has the single purpose of reducing domestic political withdrawal pressure on the administration between now and January 2009, then I'd say it's quite well conceived.

Posted by: Petey on January 6, 2007 12:40 PM

One possibility; the Bush regime has agreed to assist the Shiites in ethnically cleansing the Sunnis. The US military and the Maliki regime can go village to village and get rid of the Sunnis. Either kill them all or turn them into refugees in Syria. No Sunnis, no insurgency. Mission accomplished.

Of course such an outcome would be horrific. It would lead to a Shiite ruled theocracy in Iraq allied with Iran. And if you listen to Bush, increasingly he has been defining victory as a "stable Iraq". Well, an ethnically cleansed Iraq under the control of Sadr's thugs would be "stable". Most autocratic regimes are stable. Bush will be able to claim "victory".

Posted by: DonB on January 6, 2007 03:10 PM

Operation Forward Together not only failed, it dramatically increased violence in Iraq. This is not a matter of debate. It's simple numbers. Statistically, we've had about one additional U.S. serviceman die every day since August, thanks to last year's "surge" in Baghdad.

Posted by: Jamie McCarthy on January 6, 2007 03:34 PM

I was screaming at my television last night when people were comparing this new "stratergy" as what they were doing previously with the Marines....one person mentioned that they had to clear Fallujah, and really, how will it be any different in terms of success?

How in the hell can the relatively small increase in troops do what they couldnt do before? The Whac-A-Mole strategy didnt work and wont work again since the insurgents will just melt away to attack somewhere else. There is only so many areas that these additional troops can, most importantly, HOLD.

Posted by: zAmboni on January 6, 2007 04:06 PM

The right is worried about gays in the military following Shalikashvili's new position on that issue, etc?

I think that ship has sailed. Need I point out how gay the name "Operation Forward Together" sounds?

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