Iraq aka “Whack a Mole” (More Costly Than a Quarter)
In mid March I wrote about the “Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)” that had the headline , “Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbskillings of US soldiers…” and reminded our many readers that they need to be very careful in judging either the success or the failure of the so called “surge.” I felt that a friendly reminder was in order as too many Republican Bloggers and Pundits were lauding the success of the “surge” and it could prove to be a severe embarrassment to conservatives in general:
Over the last few weeks, posters “Wally Lind” and “I Despise Michigan Politics” made comments that essentially said that the “surge” had not yet begun and now is not the time to condemn or condone it. I agree with that sentiment. The “planned surge” has not yet begun. It is wrong to blame todays deaths in Iraq on the failure of the surge just like it is wrong to credit any fatality fluctuations to the surge.
The “numbers” are sadly in and the whole month of March was more violent than ever. There were a minimum 1,808 Iraqi Security Force and Civilian deaths in March compared to 1,531 in February and 1,802 in January. Worse there were 81 American fatalities compared to 80 in February and 83 in January. Those numbers are still preliminary and will most likely be growing.
How could this happen? It is “whack a mole” in Iraq:
A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures.
There is only one metric that the American People will use to judge progress in Iraq and I wrote about it on January 18, 2007. It is rather simple and demands no knowledge of “nuance:”
No matter what Tony Snow attempts to use as a metric for success in Iraq, the American People will be looking at how many “boots are on the ground” and what is the daily casualty count. The “news” that the “local reserve unit” is getting it’s fourth deployment in October 2008 will only fuel the anger.
Does anyone think that the American public will support the GOP in 2008 if there are 150,000 soldiers in Iraq and there are one to three daily casualties?
Four years after Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi people were given a wonderful gift, no matter how one attempts to explain/defend “the surge” when it is fully implemented, the American People will rightfully judge its success or failure on the number of American sons, husbands and fathers that perish defending Iraqi sons, husbands and fathers.
— Oak Leaf