First: by anybody. Everybody. Perception is everything in this war.
No, it isn't, and that's the attitude that got us in this mess in the first place.
Fuck perception. At some point somebody's going to have to start acknowledging reality. The American public perceived that Saddam had WMD's and ties to al Qaeda, and that's how we got where we are. It doesn't matter whether the public PERCEIVES that the surge is working, what matters is whether it actually IS. And as IM and Brent's links point out, there's a pretty good argument to the contrary.
Now, I'll grant that if a majority of Iraqis think the American presence is responsible for the decline in violence, then that in and of itself could be an example of the surge "working" -- hearts and minds and all of that. That's the reason for my question, "Perceived by whom?"; it's the Iraqis', not the Americans', perception that is important here.
But I see little evidence that that's the majority opinion in Iraq. I think the majority opinion in Iraq -- and, frankly, the reality of the situation -- is that our presence is RESPONSIBLE for the violence.
McCain recently attributed the success of the Anbar Awakening to the surge, and was rapped on the knuckles for it because the Anbar Awakening began months prior. Worse yet, he talked about how the surge had helped protect Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi -- if so, it did a pretty poor job, as he was assassinated. (Lots of sources on this, but for now I'll go with
Juan Cole on Alternet.)
These mistakes of McCain's are not simple gaffes. On the subject of the war -- the thing he's building his campaign around -- he either has no idea what he's talking about, or he's lying.
Second: I meant exactly that, though I didn't intend it as a criticism or endorsement of policy, strategy, or the success of any particular tactic. It is simply a fact that fewer explosions leads to different opportunities. Not all of them are easy, desirable, or sane, but they do include in particular the opportunity to engage in the more constructive aspects of occupation.
Opportunities are great, but results are the bottom line. The purpose of the surge was to give the Iraqi government and military breathing room to get their shit together -- and you'll recall that we stopped hearing the slogan "We'll stand down as they stand up" about the point we found out how many squads in the Iraqi army were ready for duty.
As for the government, it's divided sharply on sectarian lines, and its greatest accomplishment is to tell us it wants us out.
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Topic: Don't you know there's a war on? (Read 71008 times)