This is what the surge was sold to us as: A short term increase in the number of troops to stabilize Baghdad and facilitate training. The surge we are experiencing now is nothing of the kind.
We have all seen the new cars for under $100 a month. When you get to the dealership the last one of those cars is gone, but over here is a sweet little ride I know you will love.
The surge come on was that supplemental forces would be temporarily added to our current forces to stabilize Baghdad. The switch was a permanent escalation with no accountability for ethnic volience in Baghdad or the training of Iraqi forces. The original justification for the surge was to ease the ethnic violence in Baghdad so that the new government would have "breathing" room.
We are now being told that the surge is a success even though there is no progress on curbing volience in Baghdad and the training of troops and police is not going well nor is the Iraqi government making any real progress toward unification.
Join me below the fold for the original justification for the surge based on the Iraq Study Group Report.
ISG on "Surge" »
From page 73:
Because of the importance of Iraq to our regional security goals and to our ongoing fight against al Qaeda, we considered proposals to make a substantial increase (100,000 to 200,000) in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. We rejected this course because we do not believe that the needed levels are available for a sustained deployment. Further, adding more American troops could conceivably worsen those aspects of the security problem that are fed by the view that the U.S. presence is intended to be a long-term "occupation."
We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective.
There are two really tragic parts to this scam.
One, the surge numbers are what Bush is using to gage further withdrawals on. Before the surge there were about 120,000 troops, now there are about 160,000. If Bush withdrawals a 5,000 or 10,000 he will call that a troop reduction.
Two, the surge was Bush's implementation of the ISG report, even though he distorted the concept.
Bait and switch all over again. What they sell and what we get are two different things.
Bait - Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
Switch - We are there to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq
Switch - We need to stabilize Iraq
Bait - We are in world wide war with terrorism
Switch - Al Qaeda in Iraq - the people that attacked us on 9/11
Bait - We need to have a surge to end the ethnic strife in Baghdad
Switch - We need to keep Al Qaeda in An bar Province on the run
All wars evolve. Justifications at the beginning of any war are not the same at the end of the war. The cause at the beginning of WWII was to preserve the free world. At the end of the war the objective was to shape a new world. The original justification for the war was true, the change in the objectives were necessary because the war had changed the world. At the beginning of the Civil War the cause was to preserve the Union. After the battle of Antietam and Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery became part of the war objective. However the original justification of the wars was still true. Hitler was a menace to freedom and the South had succeeded.
In the case for this war neither the original justification nor the current justifications are true. That is why Bush needs to keep changing it. Because he must prop up lies faster than the truth can knock them down.
No more bait and switch, get our troops out of Iraq, now.