Is The Surge Working? And Other Articles To Read

Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, fresh from a trip to Iraq, are suddenly a bit bullish on the surge and were given prime New York Times real estate to make their case. Watch for this one to stir a blogosphere debate today. Meanwhile: could the drawdown begin next April?

Barack Obama e-mails CBN's David Brody to chat about religion. Meanwhile, Slate's popular Achilles Heel series continues today with the question for Obama: what the heck has he done? Over the weekend, the New York Times' latest bio essay about Obama concluded that his tenure in the IL state legislature matched his rhetoric.

Rivals of Hillary Clinton are pushing around this clip today. The Los Angeles Times looks at her courtship of Indian American businesses and their penchant for outsourcing. The AP's Pickler wrote about Hillary Clinton's strengths in South Carolina.

Your daily dose of Parse The Gingrich.

Icky Nashua Telegraph headline of the morning (courtesy of the Hotline's Wake Up Call) : Got an itch in a warm, moist place? It could be fungus

Comments

Marc--

Michael O'Hanlon is "suddenly a bit bullish" on the surge?

Just use Google. O'Hanlon is not "suddeny" a bit bullish on the surge. He has always been very bullish on the surge:

"Horses Mouth.... Here's O'Hanlon advocating that we should keep supporting the surge on April 24: ... Here's O'Hanlon advocating for the surge at a panel discussion on ...
"May 15, 2007... O'Hanlon also happens to be a proponent of the surge. ...
"Michael O'Hanlon - A Skeptic's Case For the Surge washingtonpost.com: President Bush's plan for a surge of American troops in Iraq has run into a brick wall of congressional opposition. But it is still the right thing to try ...
"Opinion by Michael E. O'Hanlon, The Wall Street Journal (3/1/07) ... Congress should give his surge strategy a chance
"Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, ... surge of 25000 more American troops to Iraq to try to improve security in Baghdad..."

People say you're neither dumb nor lazy. So why do you do this? Please provide an explanation

Brad DeLong

Posted by Brad DeLong | July 30, 2007 10:13 AM

The NYT piece deals with the success in Anbar province which is almost entirely Sunni. The local Sunni Shieks don;t like losing authority to Islamic extremists from elsewhere. The surge is being much less successful in mixed areas where ethnic violence is paramount.

And while the Sunni Shieks are pushing out the Queda types in Anbar, the same Sunni Shieks are threatening to leave the government, totally dooming any chance of poltical progress... progress that already was on life-support.

And it's poltical progress that matters.

Posted by Chuck Miller | July 30, 2007 10:19 AM

Marc, please provide a link to the Clinton clip.

Posted by Daniel | July 30, 2007 11:52 AM

Marc has good info but he usually messes it up by giving it a spin in favor of Bush admin or republicans. Just look at how he addresses stories about Romney, Thomson on one hand the ones about Edwards, Obama, etc. So Brad should not be surprised about about Marc's spins in favor of Bushies.

Here is the reality:

Casualties:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm

Surge by numbers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2007/iraq_surge/default.stm

By the way, how come Marc is no reporting a major story that Maliki and Patraeus are not getting along at all??

Posted by Tom | July 30, 2007 12:56 PM

Hmmm, Tom, Looked at your sites and they seem to indicate things are stabilizing a bit (even given the BBC's self acknowledged anti-American spin they seem to think so too). Maybe just maybe things ARE getting better. Now wouldn't that be terrible. What do you think we can do to help stop the surge from working? I mean that is what you want isn’t it?

Posted by H. Evers | July 30, 2007 4:26 PM

H. Evers, based on the info on those two sites and the other info you conclude that surge is working then you sound like a Bushie who will believe that Iraq had WMD. If the US death toll had gone down by 50 to 75% and stayed that low for last couple of months then yes, it would have been safe to call that things are getting better but thats clearly not happening! Simply compare the numbers of July-06 with July-07 and see whats working and whats not working!!

You also need to read Andrew Sullivan's comment on this. I quote..
"If the military is becoming less sectarian, then that's a big deal. Sorry, but count me unconvinced. Pollack's only sources are American advisers and the "high command." Well: they would say that, wouldn't they? Compare Pollack's account with the statement two days ago from the man tasked to actually train the Iraqis:"

details at: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/07/pollack-perks-u.html

Also, checkout how your dear leaders just shutdown flow of information when the spin does not work.

U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports
http://www.latimes.com/la-na-iraqpower27jul27,0,705711.story?coll=la-home-center

LOL!

Posted by TJ | July 30, 2007 5:32 PM

Your sadness at this seeming defeat of the United States overwhelms me. I feel your pain and your sorrow for all those who will suffer if the American military withdraws.

You are sad at this outcome aren't you? I mean you would not actively help the terrorists would you? No of course you wouldn't. Why no one can question your patriotism can they.

H. Evers

Posted by H. Evers | July 31, 2007 8:17 AM

Also from Mr. Sullivan's blog; "The surge has done well in making a difference in security conditions. But it isn't a light switch for reconciliation; there are no quick fixes to years of bitterness and violence," he said. (you can use TJ's link)

"No one ever said is was supposed to be easy, it just happens to be the right thing to do".

H. Evers

Posted by h.evers | July 31, 2007 8:23 AM

For people like H. Evers when facts don't support their arguments they just blackout the facts and question other's patriotism. The American people have become smarter and don't believe in the republican culture of chickenhawks, corruption and lies.

A. Sullivan also reported that how O'Hanlon's "own data-set on Iraq belies his op-ed on the surge" and then he give the following link:

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jul/30/ohanlons_optimism_about_iraq_contradicted_by_brookings_own_assessment

This is the reality based world!

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