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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2008Bush's Iraq surge an utter failureSupporters of the Bush administration's war in Iraq seized upon the relative quiet during the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict to claim that the U.S. surge policy of sending thousands of new troops to secure Baghdad has been a resounding success. Their exuberance was short-lived, however, as not long after the anniversary, the Iraqi central government of Nouri al-Maliki launched a poorly-planned and executed military offensive to assert its authority over Basra, Iraq's southern port city. Basra has been under the control of Shiite militias and criminal gangs since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Maliki's action touched off a general uprising against the U.S. and the central government by the militia of Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, the most powerful rival to Maliki's own Shiite party and its allies. Sadr's forces had been observing a strategic ceasefire during the period of the surge, the primary cause behind the downturn in violence that the Bush administration points to as proof of its policy's success. The Sadr militia routed the poorly-trained Iraqi army in Basra and other cities of the Shiite south and instances took place in which army soldiers even deserted to join the militia. The fighting in Baghdad was fierce and the U.S. and the Iraqi armies resorted to cordoning off the entire Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, trapping its residents inside with limited food and medical supplies. The central government's humiliation was brought to an end only by a ceasefire ordered by Sadr. The outcome of the fighting is an enormous strengthening of Sadr's forces at the expense of the weak and unpopular central government, which will position the Sadrists well for parliamentary elections later this year. The U.S. loses most of all, however, as its claims of progress in Iraq have been revealed to the world to be entirely hollow. By the time General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivered their testimony to Congress in mid-April, Bush conceded that the reduction of the troop buildup underway had to be halted because of the deterioration of the situation. (See Anti-war demonstrations around the country for demonstration reports.) The President's only consolation is that a deepening economic crisis at home has focused attention away from his failure in Iraq. This shift serves the Democrats equally well, as it becomes increasingly difficult to pose options for exiting Iraq. --Sympathizer |
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