How a Surge "Works"

So this is what Operation Iraqi Freedom has come to mean: A society kept under lockdown, with the hope the American public will buy it as "success" as long as casualties can be kept lower than they were before. And they may be right, given that the public receives too little news like these reports from Iraqi stringers and activists. Coverage on the evening news is down to two minutes per week -- counting all three networks -- according to a recent study, and given that such reporting as there is must be done in the presence of "minders" from the American military -- it's simply still too dangerous to do any other kind of story -- the public would probably be better informed if they didn't receive even that. It seems to be progress enough to satisfy Congress, anyway.

But it can't be sustained forever, just as a prison can't be kept in lockdown forever. At some point, you need the inmates' cooperation. Constant coercion is simply too expensive, and how much has it been now? $600 billion? $700 billion? There are websites you can go to to look it up, but by the time you finish typing the number, it's gone up another $10 million. And the bailing wire holding together the American economy is beginning to fray under the strain.

It's almost enough to make me want to see John McCain win the election, since he so proudly claims authorship of this surge and so wants us to believe it's "working." When George Bush finally returns the keys to the car he so cavalierly took joyriding -- you'll find it down the street, wrapped around a tree -- let it be to John McCain.

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