Security has failed in Iraq

Time to face the music for Bush et al, in my opinion.

The surge didn’t work in Iraq.

The goal of the surge was to secure Baghdad and Anbar. Anbar, prior to consideration of the small surge, had already begun to experience a significant change. Taking credit for that change a year later is less than honest information from an administration with ’strained’ credibility.

Whatever credibility was left on the subject of Iraq died on Monday when the United States government banned all employee travel in Iraq.

In Iraq today, only the Iraqi citizens and our military can drive or walk.

That drive or walk isn’t safe or any safer than the ‘violent’ period of one year ago when the surge idea was revived and modified.

The surge was an idea rejected by the Iraq study group. The group did not believe our country had enough military power remaining to field the needed troops for a sufficient period of time to bring about real and lasting change.

Bush needed a change in policy when violence escalated last summer. So he modified the rejected plan.

This summer the good news is hardly good news. The news is that we have returned to the same level of violence that prompted the failed policy of a limited surge.

Clearly, the surge has maintained the status quo of one year ago with the additional news that without a healthy amount of private security forces, currently about 48,000 strong, U.S. civilian employees cannot travel.

Do we not have enough troops? Do we need another 48,000 mercenaries?

And, as the debate continues on the surge, demographics of the country continue to change, making even short-term comparisons irrelevant. We should not compare Iraq today with Iraq one year ago given the huge migration of innocent people forced from their homes.

This story, Migration, shows the rapidly changing face of Iraq.

The migration data, which are expected to be released this week by the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization but were given in advance to The New York Times, indicate that in Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes in search of security, shelter, water, electricity, functioning schools or jobs to support their families.

Yes, violence is trending downward from a recent high, but that doesn’t mean the surge caused the change.

A bird’s-eye view of the data suggests that since the bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in February 2006 triggered severe sectarian strife, Sunnis generally have been moving north and west, Shiites south, and Christians to the far north

The broader security situation within Iraq can’t be judged by a single reporter, from a single source, or by a single standard.

By my standards, the surge was a political ploy to delay admitting that military might and technology can’t quickly change the political processes in a country with 25 million people divided by several religions, social and ethnic backgrounds, and geography.