Big surprise. I thought the final “surge” troops were not even to be in place until this month, but already Democrats have told the President that the surge is a failure. I said “big surprise” because that is what they said almost the instant the surge was proposed, before any of the troops were in place.
Top US congressional Democrats bluntly told President George W. Bush Wednesday that his Iraq troop “surge” policy was a failure.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the president over Iraq by sending him a letter, ahead of a White House meeting later on Wednesday.
“As many had forseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results,” the two leaders wrote.
“The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation.
“It has not enhanced Americas national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on US forces have increased.
“In fact, the last two months of the war were the deadliest to date for US troops.
The letter appeared to preview a fresh showdown over Iraq between anti-war Democrats and the president, just a few weeks after Bush forced his foes to strip troop withdrawal timelines from a 100 billion dollar emergency war budget.So, did Democrats believe that the immediate result of us stepping up our game and increasing the pressure we put on the insurgents would be a decrease in violence? Didn’t the President and military advisors say from the beginning that violence would almost certainly increase in the short term? I am not a military genius, but I do know that you don’t determine how much progress is being made based only on monthly death counts. I don’t know whether or not the surge will achieve the desired result, but I do know that progress is being reported from some regions of Iraq that were considered lost causes not that long ago.
I also know that Democrats are heavily invested in failure in Iraq. The President will be judged by what he did and tried to do in Iraq. That judgment might not come for many years and even if it is ultimately deemed a failure there is no doubt (except among the most rabid wackos) that he did what he thought was good for the country. There is also no doubt that the President wanted to win in Iraq. I don’t think the same can be said for most of the Democrats in Congress.
Update: A.J. Strata has more on how the surge is working.
