The Surge, Casualties, and "Success"

Lately every time I hear a war apologist like Sean Hannity on the radio or TV I hear how successful the surge is, and how the anti-war liberals have been quieted and their criticisms disproven by the success of the surge.

Here's what "success" looks like in Iraq today.

For starters, the situation in the North is as volatile as ever, as US ally Turkey moves into Iraqi Kurdistan unapologetically. The Kurds in Iraq believe--and it's hard to argue with them--that the US military is complicit in bombings of Iraqi positions and Turkish troop movements.

Meanwhile here are the casualty figures in Iraq as a whole:

-Iraqi civilian and security forces numbered 342 last month. That's keeping in mind, of course, that these numbers are based on news reports, and generally undercount the death totals.

-There have been 15 deaths of U. S. Servicemen in Iraq so far in December.

Today, a truck bomb exploded near a dam, and four Iraqis were killed in a Baghdad car bomb attack.

As the BBC reports, security is better, but life in Baghdad isn't.

Politically, Iraq remains a quagmire. The top Iraqi Kurd refused to meet with Condi Rice today, and as the USA Today editorialized, the progress on the political front has been non-existent:

On the Republican side, the White House has been busy making excuses for the Iraqi government's failure to move toward national reconciliation (which is the goal of the troop surge), and it has lowered the benchmarks for success to the level of irrelevance. That translates into reduced accountability, continued dependency and an open-ended commitment. Lowering the bar for the Iraqi government sends a message that Baghdad can enjoy security paid for in American lives, and reconstruction aid paid by America's taxpayers, and ignore its responsibilities.

And, the US has no plan for withdrawal, or any foreseeable way out, no plan to even reduce troops that were increased for the surge. The forces are stretched to the limit, and there's no end in sight.

This is what "success" has been reduced to in some minds. Violence is down, but not out, not by a long shot. Hundreds of Iraqi casualties and continued American deaths doesn't sound much like a success to me. Better? Sure. Success? No. To me, success will be a functioning Iraqi democracy, like we were promised, without U. S. troops to enforce security half a world away.

Essentially, the US has every single one of its fingers in the dyke. For now, it is only leaking a little. But one false move and the flood will come.

Doesn't sound like "success" to me.