Was the "surge" worth it?

[Weester]

Baghdad - After almost 15 months of its longest, deadliest, and most unconventional deployment, the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the US Army is packing up to leave Iraq.

When it goes home to Fort Stewart, Ga., this month, the unit will be among the last to return from the "surge," Washington's move to calm the sectarian bloodshed that had consumed Baghdad and much of Iraq.

In many regards, the plan worked. Violence dropped as about 30,000 extra US soldiers moved into combat outposts around Iraq starting in February 2007. Last month, the number of Iraqis killed was 515; last June, that figure was 3,000.

Still, while the 1/64 recognizes much progress during its tour, the majority of the more than dozen soldiers and officers interviewed question if their effort will have been worth it in the end. Many say their mission helped bring about only a lull in the sectarian killings and feel that neither the Iraqi government nor its forces are ready, capable, or even motivated to build on the successes of the surge.


Time to leave........................

[Turbo RX-6]

Wow, the Christian Science Monitor interview 12 anonymous soilders and a few questioned what might happen when we leave, your on to something now Weester, you've got the proof, we should get out today, just because of the doubts these 12 anonymous brave men have.

You do know what anonymous means right, it means they can print anything they want, with no recourse whether it's true or not, there's no way to verify the story, who you gonna ask, we have no names.

But assuming it's true, here's a news flash, that's why were not leaving until the stability becomes permanent, and they are ready to run the show, and even then, we're still gonna have a presence in Iraq with most likely several military bases.

Things are a 100 times better, than last year at this time, your article say's as much, 2500 less Iraq's killed in the month of June, people are actually coming out of their homes, kids playing in the park, people are coming back to their old neighborhoods.

So your right, lets leave now, before their ready and let it all fall to hell. Your pathetic.

Much to the disdain of pos like Pelosi, Reid, Obama and yourself, the surge has been a huge success, much more then they could ever have hoped for, try reading the blogs of actual soilders over there and see how they feel, ask yourself why thousands have re-signed for the 2nd or 3rd tour of Iraq.

I guess you missed yesterdays report on how Iraq's government hit 15 out of 18 benchmarks........................................ ....DOH

I know you can't stand it Weester, but thank God, the people running things, including the Democrats are a lot smarter than you, they just say they want a pullout, but are not actually dumb enough to do it, if you were in charge, you would be.

12 anonomus soilders in the Christian Science Monitor.

ROTFL

[IEATV8S]

Unfortunately, that writer didn't mention anything about the over 200 other soldiers interviewed that had completely opposite views!

What would you expect, TRUTH from any liberal biased news reporting service, unless they can minipulate the truth to be what they want it to!

We would never know this except Barry Farber had an e-mail from a soldier assigned to protect the writer and reported this incident back to Barry who revealed it on the Hannity show the other day, when he was filling in!

Liberal, Lying, Lefty's (from now on and FOREVER refered to as LLL's!!!!) just doen't know how to tell the truth, or see anything in it's proper perspective. If they did, they wouldn't be LLL's!!!

[BlownZ]

I agree...Time to Leave.

Feck em.

[Weester]

Originally Posted by BlownZ

I agree...Time to Leave.

Feck em.

A man with a functioning brain.................AMEN!

[Turbo RX-6]

Wow, never saw this coming......................................DOH

Go Obama, Change, yes he can, his mind over and over again when it siuts him politically.

What happened to the immediate withdrawl, now it's 16 months, anyone want to guess after he visits Iraq, what will be the next step?

A different kind of candidate. ROTFL

Pathetic

Obama opens door to altering his Iraq policy

Democrat says his upcoming trip could change his troop withdrawal plan

AP

Obama denies altering position on Iraq
**July 3: Speaking to reporters in North Dakota, Barack Obama says he plans to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq in 16 months.
MSNBC

updated 2:57 p.m. PT, Thurs., July. 3, 2008

FARGO, N.D. - Democrat Barack Obama says he's always been open to refining his Iraq policy but blamed Republican John McCain's, campaign for suggesting "we were changing our policy when we haven't."
The Illinois senator called a second news conference of the day Thursday to address the GOP criticism of him and resulting questions about where he stands on Iraq.

He said what he learns from military commanders on his upcoming trip to Iraq will refine his policy but "not the 16-month timetable" for withdrawing U.S. troops from combat in Iraq.

He said what he learns could affect how many residual troops might be needed to train the Iraqi army and police.

During his presidential campaign, Obama has gone from the hard-edged, vocal opposition to Iraq that defined his early candidacy to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a phased-out drawdown of all combat brigades that, at a rate of one or two a month, could last 16 months. He has said that if al-Qaida builds bases in Iraq, he would keep troops either in the country or the region to carry out targeted strikes.

Republicans, who have been goading Obama to return to Iraq to see conditions for himself, pounced.
There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience, said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the national Republican Party. Obama's Iraq problem undermines the central premise of his candidacy and shows him to be a typical politician.

Obama: 'We have to begin to end this war now'
Sept. 12, 2007: Calling for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. combat brigades from Iraq, Barack Obama says, We have to begin to end this war now.

McCain has been a vocal supporter of the Iraq war and war policy has been a central disagreement between the two candidates.
But Obama insisted that his position has not changed at all.
He said he is saying now what he always has: The war was a mistake and needs to be brought to a responsible end, but we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in. This means, he said, that his 16-month timeline was always premised on troops being safe and Iraq being stable.

I'm going to continue to gather information to see whether those conditions still hold, he said. My goal is to end this conflict as soon as possible. Although he did not specifically mention his 16-month timeline on Thursday, Obama called it pure speculation to suggest he has been softening or even backing off his position as conditions improve in Iraq.

What happened to the speech in September 2007, when he called for the immediate withdrawl of all combat troops in Iraq, now he insist he never said this, that it was this new 16 month withdrawl plan all along.

Go Obama.

[Gothmog]

the surge may have had an affect, but it has more to do with us paying the Sunni's not to fight than some stategy to win the hearts and minds.

no real progress has been made, we are in a stalemate

[IEATV8S]

Originally Posted by Gothmog

the surge may have had an affect, but it has more to do with us paying the Sunni's not to fight than some stategy to win the hearts and minds.

no real progress has been made, we are in a stalemate

More wishful thinking from our resident LLL!

[The Blob]

Originally Posted by Turbo RX-6

Go Obama, Change, yes he can, his mind over and over again when it siuts him politically.

Obama is now sprinting as fast as he can toward the center because he knows that's the only way he is going to be elected.

He says he's changed his mind on Iraq and says he even agrees with Roberts and Alito in the last two SC cases... he's now for gun rights and the death penalty.

It's probably only a matter of time before he promises to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.