As usual, Juan Cole hits the nail on the head about the supposed success of the surge we keep hearing about:
For all those journalists and politicians who keep insisting that there are new “glimmers” of “hope” in Iraq because of the new security plan started 6 weeks ago, here is a sobering statistic from the Iraqi government. (I’m looking at you, John McCain. See below for more on McCain).
Iraqis killed in February: 1806 (64.5/day)
Iraqis killed in March: 2078 (67/day)As the wire services report, that is a 15% increase if figured by the month. – Juan Cole
And yet I just heard a piece on NPR where the interviewer started off the first question with, “By all accounts, the surge is working in Bahgdad…”.
Maybe things are looking pretty good when you’re John McCain and have the luxury of being surrounded by a full company of troops, five helicopters, snipers, and an entourage of humvees for protection, but for the average Iraqi, life is still full of death and destruction.
Maybe Milwaukee’s own Patrick McIlheran will write another entry in his weblog at the MJS to inform us again of how well things are going in Iraq this week?
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
