Pure Hell

I'm certainly glad Tom Ricks understands this. The problem is that the broadcast news outside of Olbermann doesn't have a clue.

Discussing the one-year anniversary of President Bush’s call for the “surge” on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, Washington Post Pentagon reporter Thomas Ricks said that, “judged on the terms in which the president presented it, the surge has not worked.” “The purpose was to improve security, but to improve it to lead to a political breakthrough,” said Ricks. “And that political breakthrough has not happened.”

Asked about whether the Iraqis “think it has worked,” Ricks said they “recognize that large parts of Baghdad are more peaceful,” but only compared to the “pure hell” of 2006:

"I think Iraqis recognize that large parts of Baghdad are more peaceful than they were, but violence is basically back to 2005 levels. And that was no picnic, 2005. It’s just 2006 was pure hell."

I'll say. You have that Iraqi soldier who killed two US troops that were kicking a pregnant woman being lauded as a hero. That is the result of a country under occupation, and they don't like it. With hundreds of thousands dead (probably more, considering that Iraqis might not want to tell government officials that their relatives died fighting the government) and 40,000 pounds of bombs still dropped on a daily basis, there's nothing to suggest that Iraqis are content with hundreds of thousands of American troops occupying their country for the next 100 years. This is untenable.