How can they even hope that we can hear them declare "Mission Accomplished" again? They have fed us so many lies from the very beginning that they have an enormous "credibility gap"!
Just what percentage of the daily atrocities in Iraq are perpetrated by al-Qaida in Iraq? They recently had Congressional testimony in which the shill for W said roughly 2%! So that means the remaining 98% of insurgent groups are still running rampant.
So if the Generals claim victory over al-Qaida in Iraq-which didn't exist prior to "Operation Iraqi Freedom", and don't deliver ultimatums that the US has no reason to stay in Iraq, then they are admitting that Iraq is in the throes of a civil war-a phrase W doesn't like!
The basic facts are those that the article "CRS: Bush Administration Has Intensified False Reporting On Al Qaeda Since 'Surge' Began" at
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/08/crs-al-qaeda/
which describes that in Congressional testimony Ret. Gen. James Jones, author of a major report on Iraqi security forces, acknowledged to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) during the week of the 6th anniversary of 9/11 that 98 percent of violence in Iraq is "Iraqis fighting amongst Iraqis":
BAYH: [T]wo percent or fewer of the adversaries that we're facing in Iraq and that the Iraqis are facing in Iraq are foreign jihadis or AQI affiliates, [and] 98 percent or more are Iraqis fighting amongst Iraqis for the future of Iraq. Is that consistent with your understanding?
JONES: I think we would agree with that. Yes."
The article "Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled -- Many Officials, However, Warn Of Its Resilience" states "The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.
But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.
"I think it would be premature at this point," a senior intelligence official said of a victory declaration over AQI, as the group is known. Despite recent U.S. gains, he said, AQI retains "the ability for surprise and for catastrophic attacks." Earlier periods of optimism, such as immediately following the June 2006 death of AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid, not only
proved unfounded but were followed by expanded operations by the militant organization."
In other words they have been lying about any phony success for so long no one believes anything they say anymore!
Who are the main liars?
The above Think Progress article shows "Attempting to drum up public support for the war in Iraq in July, President Bush referred to al Qaeda 95 times in a single speech, claiming the war in Iraq has become the central front in the fight against al Qaeda (AQI):T
here's also a debate about al Qaeda's role in Iraq. Some say that Iraq is not part of the broader war on terror. They complain when I say that the al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy that attacked us on September the 11th. ... I say that there will be a big defeat in Iraq and it will be the defeat of al Qaeda.
Echoing Bush, Gen. David Petraeus also argued that al Qaeda is "public enemy number one" in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said AQI was the "principle threat" to the Iraqi people."
The article "US generals keen to claim victory" states "THE US military believes it has defeated al-Qa'ida in Iraq and some generals want to declare victory over the group the Bush administration describes as the most lethal adversary in the country, reports said yesterday.
The US military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qa'ida in Iraq in recent months, The Washington Post said.
But the paper reported that as the White House and military commanders were planning the next phase of the war, other officials were cautioning against a "premature" victory declaration that could create strategic and political difficulties.
It said the US intelligence community and some in the military were concerned about underestimating an enemy that had shown great resilience.
