The success of the surge?

The given reason and objectives of the US escalation, or surge, in Iraq are as misleading as those for the invasion itself.

Let's not even talk of the impact of 15 month tours on the soldiers for now.

The surge is the result of the initial forces in Iraq being too few to secure the Iraqi population and too ill prepared at sorting out the local culture to effectively fight the terrorists, insurgents and crooks at the same time.

US forces could not indiscriminately kill Iraqis simply upon suspicion of insurgent activity. They wore no uniforms, hid in the shadows, and enjoyed a degree of protection from the silence of the local population. How then to combat these ghosts without committing unthinkable war crimes?

The same people who brought death squads to El Salvador and Central America brought their craft to Baghdad. The Interior Ministry was trained in small unit tactics to do the job of killing the people in Iraq that America needed killed but could not justify doing themselves.

Iraqi on Iraqi violence was allowed to continue until such a point as the US felt it had served its purpose. Iraqis were able to identify and kill foreigners, former regime elements, criminals and members of political parties that were competing for power from the US backed parties.

Only after the death squads served their purpose did the US administration commit additional US forces to secure neighborhoods for the common Iraqi. While all of this was happening the US forces in proper uniforms were unable, as they were too few, to do anything about the genocide that was happening under their noses. Their number one priority, and some would say rightly so, was to stay alive and just make it home. Deep down, at a level not talked about in coffee shops and waiting rooms, no one in America believes that Iraqis are worth the lives of Americans.

When Iraqis kill Iraqis America wins. By surging additional us forces in to Baghdad after the mass killings the US was indeed able to provide enough security to bring a relative peace. A huge portion of the killing had been done for them. What was left for the American forces was to erect concrete barriers to segregate the waring neighborhoods and route out any left over hot heads.

“It’s a myth to say the militias are bad for Iraq,” says Abbas Kadhim, assistant professor of Islamic studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. “They are the only ones providing anything meaningful for Iraqis. The problem [for Iraqis] is choosing between anarchy and a militia that protects you for a price.”

The success of the surge is purely from the American point of view. Additional forces were sent in too late to stop the killing. Iraqis paid the price in the time before the surge and the Americans step in to the blood soaked streets to claim that their presence brought peace. Never mind the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that could have been saved with a sound US strategy from the start.

The Sunni reaction to Shia death squads and indiscriminate killing by foreign al Qaeda cells was an overdue coupling to the US forces in the form of the Son's of Iraq. They are in fact a large portion of the insurgency but now enjoy US weapons, training and funds as they improve their position to seize power when their chance presents itself.

Shia have always been portrayed as the collaborators and traitors in Iraq. Badr Shia formed the center of the Interior Ministry death squads but their hate extended beyond former regime elements (Sunni) and also brought them in conflict with the Sadr Shia. This Shia on Shia fighting meant that no one was safe which secured the position of the Mahdi Army.

The true success of the surge is the emergence of the Shia grassroots Sadr movement to secure themselves. Muqtada is hardly qualified to serve as a leader of Iraq on a national level but his movement has filled a void created by the Coalition Forces. The US commitment to squash Sadr, as he is not part of the US doctored and puppet ruling party, has US troops fighting for the "freedom" of Iraqis against a group that emerged and resists America in the name of freeing the Iraqis.

To free the Iraqis the Americans are fighting and killing the Iraqis who are fighting to free the Iraqis from foreign occupation. The continued presence of US troops on the ground in Iraq is the main obstacle to lasting peace within Iraq itself. The surge has succeeded in guaranteeing a need for our continued occupation because we have now armed and trained the Badrs (Iraqi Army and police), we have armed and provided limited resources to the Sunni (Sons of Iraq), we permit the Kurds to arm themselves and enjoy relative autonomy in the north, and we are declaring war on Shia who rose up against Saddam in 1993 and now took it upon themselves to arm and protect themselves in the pre-surge void of security.

Iraq is at present a masterfully constructed symphony of chaos that benefits only the interests of the defense industry and corporate America.