Bush: ‘The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable’
March 19, 2008 at 9:06 am by Andisheh Nouraee in Don't Panic
Last night, President Bush released excerpts of the speech he’s going to give today about Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.
As expected, it’s a collage of lies and spin:
“In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network.”
Osama bin Laden doesn’t now, nor has he ever controlled Iraq. Bush is conflating the Iraq war with the man responsible for 9/11.
The only reason Iraqis have the had the opportunity to turn against al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq is because we created the chaos that allowed them to operate.
It’s true that many Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq have turned against extremists in Iraq like al Qaeda, but Bush is taking credit for Iraqis tackling a problem that his invasion created.
“The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around — it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror,”
That’s like chopping off a man’s arms and calling yourself a doctor because you brought him paper towels and Bactine.
The troop escalation, known as the surge, has been a skillful refinement of tactics. But even its architect, Gen. David Petraeus, acknowledges it’s a strategic failure so far because Iraqi leaders will not reconcile.
The declared purpose of the escalation was to slow violence enough to facilitate political progress in Iraq. No such progress has been made.
“The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable,”
Millions of Iraqis have fled since the invasion. Millions more were forced from their homes and live as refugees in their own country.
The lowest estimate of Iraqi war dead is 81,000. Iraq is 1/12 the size of the U.S. A similarly deadly war in this country would leave 1 million people dead.
Undeniable success.
(Illustration by Jeremy Fuerst)
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