This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Also, as the U.S. occupation came under greater military pressure, American troops were given permissive "rules of engagement" that led to a number of atrocities, including the killing of civilians over the slightest suspicion that they might represent a threat.
The slaughter escalated during the "surge" with Apache helicopters unleashing 50-caliber cannon fire on "military-age males," as happened in the incident on July 12, 2007, that was captured on gun-barrel video and posted on WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010.
Grabbing Credit
Despite the variety of factors that contributed to a drop-off of violence by 2008, Washington's influential neoconservatives insisted on an explanation that credited solely the "surge" of over 20,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq in 2007. And the FCM readily went along with the neocon spin, judging Republican John McCain as "right" on the surge and Obama as "wrong" to oppose it.
So effective was the media panegyric to the surge that Obama decided to get in step by reversing himself and offering his own gratuitous praise just two months before the election in 2008. Providing a hint of his later willingness to show "flexibility" on such issues, candidate Obama reversed himself and told Bill O'Reilly the surge had "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
The misleading, neo-con-driven narrative of the surge and the media's brain-dead depiction of it as a smashing success had consequences that went far beyond the presidential campaign. The myth of the "successful surge" elevated Petraeus to the hero status that he now enjoys.
The stage was set for pushing for another surge--this time in Afghanistan. And President Obama, still remembering the stinging attacks on him for his original criticism of the Iraq surge, bent to the political pressures from the neocons and the military brass.
The President tripled the number of U.S. troops there, hoping that would appease Petraeus and his Pentagon allies, including Secretary Gates who had been retained by Obama in a gesture of bipartisanship toward the Republicans.
Despite all that, the top brass still doesn't like Obama much. Nor do they hesitate to differ with him openly on such key issues as the anticipated duration of the war.
Obama and the irrepressible Vice President Joe Biden would have us focus on the July 2011 date set by Obama for the start of withdrawal. According to Woodward, in October 2009 the President told Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates, "I'm not doing ten years. " I'm not doing long-term nation building. I am not spending a trillion dollars."
Petraeus, on the other hand, makes clear that he is a devotee of the Long War favored by his close neoconservative friends. Woodward quotes Petraeus:
"You have to recognize also that I don't think you win this war. I think you keep fighting. " This is the kind of fight we're in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids' lives."
Blunt Resistance
Petraeus's surrogates have been blunter. After visiting with Petraeus in Afghanistan in August, outspoken Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway held a press conference at which he joined several of his colleagues in expressing disdain for the July 2011 target date, claiming it is "probably giving our enemy sustenance."
At the same time, the Marine general hastened to reassure supporters of the war that such "sustenance" is sure to be short-lived, and that any improvement in Taliban morale is likely to drop when "come the fall [of 2011] we're still there hammering them like we have been."
Conway warned that considerable time will be required before Afghan forces can take over from U.S. troops, saying, "I honestly think it will be a few years before conditions on the ground are such that turnover will be possible for us."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
5
4
