McBUSH: THE SURGE IS WORKING, THE SURGE IS WORKING, THE SURGE IS WORKING

McBush strategy surging in Basra

The other day I gushed a bit about how artistic and hilarious John Cusack's new film, War, Inc. is. And it is. But I don't want to de-emphasize the seriousness of the subjects the movie tackles, one of which is the way war works-- or doesn't-- in the modern world. Since seeing the film, every report I hear out of Iraq enters my consciousness through a new filter. This morning I couldn't help juxtaposing a report from CNN's Barbara Starr with the sardonic irony from War, Inc: "The Iraqi military push into the southern city of Basra is not going as well as American officials had hoped, despite President Bush's high praise for the operation, several U.S. officials said Friday." Translation: U.S. warplanes are bombing Basra, the second-biggest city in Iraq, as well as Shi'a neighborhoods in Baghdad. The bombing-- like the devastating bombing in Turagistan that resulted in a whole dance team with prosthetic legs-- is strictly precision, of course. The precision bombing has resulted in hundreds of casualties among women and children and billions of dollars worth of damage to vital Iraqi infrastructure. (In Baghdad alone there have been close to a thousand deaths and serious casualties, more proof the surge is working-- just like the prosthetic dancer team in War, Inc proved the war there was a raging success.)

A secret U.S. intelligence report on the situation on the ground paints a very dire picture. There are mutinies in the Iraqi Army and in the police force-- and the Mahdi Army opened new fronts in Nasiriya, Karbala, Hilla, and Diwaniya. Meanwhile the government controls less than 25% of the city. What's left of the British Army in Basra is refusing to get involved.

Bush claimed the fighting is still more proof that the surge is working and that the battles threatening to consume the whole country is a fight against criminals. He credits the puppet Maliki government with taking the initiative and strutting its stuff. The stuff is apparently not ready for strutting, though Maliki and his brother-in-law are in Basra directing operations and calling his one-time Shi'a allies worse than al-Qaeda. Its a shame that Cheney, McCain and Lieberman-- who were in Iraq 2 weeks ago urging Maliki to get tough and get tough NOW-- aren't holed up with them in a bunker.

The Iraqi Parliament tried to meet to discuss the crisis but so many members are boycotting the government-- including the largest Shi'a bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes Maliki's own Dawa party-- that they didn't come close to a quorum. Al-Jazeera is reporting that the government is offering bribes to any Madhi militiamen who lay down their arms.

Falah Shanshal, an MP from the Sadrist bloc, told Al Jazeera that al-Maliki's offer to reward fighters for turning over their weapons was "a cheap stunt."

"This is the approach of tyrants... they are not achieving anything in Basra and they are relying on the occupation's air power and those in Basra are collaborating with the occupations to kill their own people," he said.

Still consumed with his personal failings in Vietnam, a doddering and obsessed John McCain sees Iraq as an opportunity to prove something about himself. His unresolved psychosis threatens to drag America into a spiral of wars and there are some American voters foolish enough to buy it. Iraqi proxies for the occupation, which the entire McBush strategy is based on, are failing miserably. According to today's NY Times, "the need to call in the American-led forces raised questions about the Iraqi Army’s ability to wage a successful campaign on its own... [although] "Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said the United States had known of the Basra operation in advance, suggesting a good deal of coordination between the United States and Iraq."

Despite rising concern over the violence, one senior administration official suggested that the operation in Basra reflected a model of future operations. The official cited the strategy outlined by Gen. David H. Petraeus to reduce the American presence in Iraq, eventually, to a limited role supporting Iraqi forces without being involved in day-to-day operations to protect the Iraqi public. In testimony to Congress in September, General Petraeus called that phase of operations “overwatch.”

“This is what overwatch looks like,” the official said, referring to the American role in Basra so far.

Around Iraq, sectarian violence also erupted on Friday.

American forces shelled Asriyah in the Touz Khormato district, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, in Kirkuk Province, killing two civilians. In Diwaniya, in the southeast, Mahdi Army gunmen attacked the mayor’s office in the Gammas district, killing the mayor.
In Mahmudiya, fierce clashes broke out between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi and American forces in the city center. And in Nasiriya, northwest of Basra, violence erupted after two days of calm, as Mahdi Army gunmen attacked Iraqi Army tanks that patrolled the city, enforcing a curfew.

As the blood pooled on village streets and ran into city gutters, news arrived of older, though no less wrenching deaths. American military officials said that, “acting on a tip,” American soldiers and Iraqi police officers had stumbled upon a mass grave containing 37 bodies in Muqdadiya, an area of palm orchards northeast of Baquba.

Some of the bodies showed signs of torture, the American military said.

The American people are getting a preview of what a 3rd Bush term, personified by warmongers like McCain, Lieberman and Graham, would be like. It's up to use to make sure when Bush leaves the White House next January he takes his failed and disastrous policies and agenda with him.