Today 175 Iraqi civilians were killed and 200 more were wounded when suicide bombers struck in Qahataniya, a town in extreme northwestern Iraq. It was the third deadliest coordinated attack on Iraqi civilians since the war in Iraq began.
On MSNBC’s Hardball, Jim Miklaszewski had this to say in response to the attack:
These bombings occurred in an area we hadn’t really heard much about until today.
Really? No shit.
Michael O’Hanlon is a moron. So’s Kenneth Pollack. And not only is Lindsay Graham a moron, but he’s a moron who’s never served overseas, though he tells us repeatedly that he’s been there seven times. The bottom line is that politicians, pundits, and D.C.-based pro-war groups have proven time and again that they have little actual knowledge of how insurgencies are organized and sustained.
Allow me to explain: The surge can never work because various Iraqi factions don’t want it to work--and because the Bush administration has no clue how to deal with an insurgency. This past Sunday, Nate Fick, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, wrote in the Washington Post:
The objective in fighting insurgents isn't to kill every enemy fighter -- you simply can't -- but to persuade the population to abandon the insurgents' cause. The laws of these campaigns seem topsy-turvy by conventional military standards: Money is more decisive than bullets; protecting our own forces undermines the U.S. mission; heavy firepower is counterproductive; and winning battles guarantees nothing.
When we surge militarily into Baghdad, the insurgents either leave for other cities (like Qahataniya), or they go to ground to wait us out. And they have no timelines. Because they live there, they can do this indefinitely. All the while, neo-con chickenhawks complain that “they just won’t fight fair,” or that “they’re cowards.” This process is what we call whack-a-mole. This process is what causes Jim Miklaszewski to go on Hardball at 5:31 PM EDT this evening to announce that
These bombings occurred in an area we hadn’t really heard much about until today.
Do I have to break this down for all you pro-surge types out there?
They attacked Qahataniya because it’s 300 miles away from your beloved surge. It’s on the Syrian border—as far away as you can get from Baghdad
and still be in Iraq. And they will do this again, again, and again. They will do this until the Iraqi people decide that their own factional differences are less important than having a functional society. They will do this until Iraqi society rejects extremism. And there is nothing we can do to stop these types of attacks militarily. We could send a million troops into Iraq and they would just wait us out.
The “give them more time” argument is a farce designed for people who are too insecure about themselves to admit that going to Iraq was a mistake. It’s a fallback argument for those too stupid or lazy to pick up a book written by Mao, Ho Chi Minh, or
Thomas Hammes.
This is a problem that will be solved by the Iraqi people, along with their neighbors and allies. It is a problem that will be solved diplomatically and politically. And if it cannot be solved through diplomatic or political initiatives, then there is no hope for Iraq. The people there will slaughter each other, ruining what is left of their once proud and great civilization.
Either way, it is time for the United States to begin disengaging itself from this process militarily.