Iraq "surge" flounders.

[Andy Bowden]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6983027.stm

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44106000/gif/_44106811_security_416.gif

Pretty damning for the US forces that 93% of Sunnis support attacks on their forces, and now the Shia community is split with 50% backing attacks and 50% dissaproving of them.

Most ethnic groups still want a united Iraq, which might be seen as surprising - EDIT: Apart from the Kurds, for obvious reasons.

[bolshevik butcher]

The American "surge" was always a farce. The increase in troops was really just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount already there. They dont have a man for every Iraqi, and ultimatley that is what they'll need if they're to keep an entire nationality tied down under imperialist occupation.

This is just confirmation of America's greatest defeat since Vietnam, perhaps an even greater defeat. This defeat shatters the dream/nightmare of the end of history and eternal domination of American imperialism and neo-liberalism. American limitations have been exposed, in the Middle East of all places.

The claim that attacks have gone down in Baghdad is quite ridiculous. They may well have gone down in Baghdad itself, although the polls suggest otherwise however they have not gone down at all altogether, the insurgency has mearley moved elsewhere its hardly a surprise that they might avoid where America has the most troops.

[hajduk]

President Bush will give a nationwide address Thursday about the war in Iraq.White House correspondent Scott Stearns reports, Mr. Bush is expected to announce the gradual withdrawal of 30,000 troops.

President Bush is spending the day rehearsing a speech in which White House officials say he will endorse General David Petraeus' recommendation to draw down 30,000 troops that were sent to Iraq earlier this year.

That would leave about 130,000 American troops in Iraq by the middle of 2008.

In testimony before Congress this week, General Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the Bush administration's overall strategy in Iraq would remain largely unchanged once the temporary surge of troops is over.

US soldiers listen as gunfire erupts during a joint operation with the Iraqi army in the town of Buhriz, Iraq, 15 Feb. 2007
US soldiers listen as gunfire erupts during a joint operation with the Iraqi army in the town of Buhriz, Iraq, 15 Feb. 2007
White House spokesman Tony Snow says the surge is a success story, because it has allowed U.S. commanders to transfer more responsibility for frontline operations to Iraqi security forces.

But there has been little progress in Iraqi political reconciliation, which the president said was the main goal for the troop surge when he announced it in January.

Opposition Democrats say Iraqi politicians have no incentive to make compromises for political reconciliation because U.S. troops are providing security for their government.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the president Tuesday. She says she sees no sign of ending what she calls the administration's open-ended commitment in Iraq.

Nancy Pelosi
"So the president added 30,000 troops, and now he is saying a year-and-a-half later, nearly two years later, we will be back to where we started from," she said. "Please, it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people that that is a new direction in Iraq."

Pelosi says General Petraeus' testimony indicates that U.S. troops will be in Iraq, at least another 10 years.

White House spokesman Snow says Pelosi is wrong to claim there will be no change in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq over 10 years. He says U.S. troops should be given credit for making, what he calls, a real difference.

A public-opinion poll by the Associated Press this week says 58 percent of Americans believe the troop surge has not helped stabilize Iraq.

The president's speech Thursday is another chance for him to try to rebuild support for U.S. involvement. A separate poll by CBS News this month shows 71 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the war.

[dannthraxxx]

How can we take those statistics as realistic? Not only that, how can you trust anything coming from any media source really?

[Guerrilla22]

Most polls show that the majority of Americans don't believe the surge has made any progress what so ever. petreus was going to find something positive to say regardless of what the situation actually is. He still didn't come with much.