It Was TALKING, Not The Surge That Made A Difference In Iraq
Lt. General Robert G. Gard, Jr. says don’t take his word for it; go back to what General David Patraeus said when he addressed Congress in 2007.
Back then, Petraeus told the Congress that the levels of violence in Iraq were down significantly and that “the tribes” were the key to that transformation. Let me repeat that: recruiting the Sunni tribes (and not the surge) has been the key to success in Iraq, along with the stand-down of the Mahdi Army. Petraeus is not alone in his thinking. The tribes of Anbar joined U.S. forces, according to U.S. Captain Jay McGee — an intelligence officer with the 69th Armored Regiment — because “everyone is convinced Coalition forces are going to leave and they are saying, ‘We do not want Al Qaeda to take control of the area when that happens.”
The ability to bring the Sunnis around to the view that it was in their best interest to work with us made the difference, in spite of opposition from the administration, which has focused so much on a military solution.
Recent published reports confirm that talks with the insurgents began all the way back in December of 2003, when military officers met with Sunni insurgent leaders in Amman, Jordan. Not only that, but when those talks were actually opposed by the administration, the military went ahead with the talks anyway.
It was all the talk about “Losing” that made the surge work. The truth is America was never in doubt of losing. We were fighting this war and occupation with one hand tied behind our back. The surge added a few troops to reduce the unnessary troop losses while Iraq got it’s act together. The surge can’t be credited with winning Iraq. We are occupying Iraq. They must be free before any success or loss can be evaluated. The surge bought us more time and some want to claim this as a victory. When they didn’t have the WMD we won and lost our integrity.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Maybe one day we will understand that if we don’t mess around in other peoples yards, they won’t mess around in ours.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Sure, we spoke softly, but discount the big stick at your peril.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:10 am
You know what the biggest step would be towards peace in the Middle East?
Nuking the whole thing.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:21 pm