Joe Biden: The Surge Is A Failure

WASHINGTON — A leading Democrat on Saturday declared last year's troop buildup in Iraq a failure. Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military push didn't succeed because U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers and political reconciliation has not been achieved. "The purpose of the surge was to bring violence in Iraq down so that its leaders could come together politically," said Biden, D-Del., in this week's Democratic radio address. "Violence has come down, but the Iraqis have not come together." He later added, "There is little evidence the Iraqis will settle their differences peacefully any time soon." Biden offered an early rebuttal to next week's testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador there. Petraeus and Crocker are expected to say the recent buildup in troops has succeeded in improving security. But they also likely will say that a period of assessment is needed this summer before officials can decide whether troop withdrawals can continue. Democrats have called this approach unacceptable and said they would pursue an alternative policy through legislation. They said their focus will be on restoring the strength of the Army and Marines and refocusing the nation's resources on fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. "I believe the president has no strategy for success in Iraq," Biden said. "His plan is to muddle through, and hand the problem off to his successor." Republicans say they are satisfied with the recent drop in violence and that more time is needed to improve the situation there.

Comments

[sodakhic]

Using the Biden logic, WW2 would have been lost in 1942 because we were losing men all over Europe. Deaths don't mean failure. Quiting means failure.Th­e pansy liberals of today are weaker than the tea we get from China.Stra­p up, lets get these evil suicide loving muslims.Le­ts help them get to paradise. BinLaden what are you waiting for?

[shockmagog]

Using your logic, we would have attacked Canada and Mexico during WW2 instead of Germany and Japan.

[PardonMyFrenchFries]

Nutty Liberals are weak on defense. So many of them forgot 9/11 happened and their hate for Bush has grown so much that they think we (USA) bring everything on ourselves.

Where is the real democrat party?

[ErikW65]

You calling Retired Generals Odom, Fallon, and Shinseki "Nutty Liberals"? Because they support the Dem position, Fries.

[ErikW65]

Did WW2 last 5 years with exactly no progress toward constatly moving goal posts and changing objectives after the mission was technically accomplished? Bad analogy, please try again.

[marinemomof3]

Did the 'Liberals' leave Afghanistan in droves?
No the chicken hawk neo CONS did.......

Failure is w/ the Iraqi government­.......

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Why has George and Company letting Bin Laden go free?? Gee I wonder....­..connecti­ons w/ the house of Saud?? Kissing and holding hands with that King all the time, one would wonder....­...
12/05 300 Special Forces w/ prime targets in sight....R­ummy says we can't upset Musharuff.­....
Dubya's got a thing going on w/ him too......w­ho are the losers???

Silvan Learning Centers, where reading is FUN,, enroll now, REPUGLICON discounts.­......

You all know the rest.....

[dennvenn]

SODAKHIC: please, please tell me you are doing a parody of an idiot. i would hate to think that someone so wantonly and blatantly stupid would be allowed near a voting machine!

[SupremeIdiot]

Or near a steering wheel or a child or a gun or a.........

[sodakhic]

60 million of us voted for Bush in 2004.Now 65 million for McCain in2008

[PacificGatePost]

As the status quo is untenable there is urgent need for action. A decision is required. The longer it takes the worse the situation will get for the people of Iraq.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-fear-withdrawal-from-iraq.html

...Is it fear or is fear used for something else?

[lornejl]

The surge is NOT a failure. We have the best fighting force in the history of the world, and, God is on our side, not that false god allah something or other. May God ( the real god ) continue to bless America and everyone that gets in Cheney's way !

[ErikW65]

Wait, are you being sarcastic?

Or are you a pod too!!!!!

[PardonMyFrenchFries]

Biden and Hillary Clinton, I believe, think that the radical liberal loonies on the left of the left are anti-american. Can we try to support our troops even if you hate Bush and Cheney.

[shockmagog]

No, it's sarcasm--and quite good, might I add.

[JohnTalbutt]

sarcastic

[midwestvoter]

What is Joe and the other Dems doing about the Neocon's determination to manufacture a threat by Iran to attack?

Pictures of Iran our media will never show you
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

[SupremeIdiot]

My wife and I have friends that are Persian. They're great people. Warm and friendly. Always bring me back pistacios from Iran when they visit. Our boys are best friends. Hardly axis of evil stuff.

[andyg]

so the persian, who hang gay people are they good too.

[Raymondf]

NO BUT THEIR GOVERNMENT IS.

[ErikW65]

Thanks for the pix, they confirmed what I've heard and read about the Iranian people themselves, and their society. They are cool people with an as_hole gov't, who the young people hate. I think we could easily make a non-aggression treaty with them, securing their right to exist unmolested, but also cut off all support for Hezbollah, and condition their use of nuclear technology.

[marinemomof3]

GREAT VIDEO.....­..

Dim's are doing nothing until they get a majority..­..then they can not fold, or will need a darn good excuse other than their tail in between...­..

[kdubbg]

Oh my god we're going to attack Boulder Colorado!

[shockmagog]

Thanks for that. It's a good counter to the dehumanizing rhetoric the Republicans constantly spew when it comes to beating the drums for war toward all of our imaginary enemies.

[PardonMyFrenchFries]

The Clinton Surge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NMrjxWLmgA

[kdubbg]

Wow, that sure beats the pants off of the Yes We Can video!!

(SPOILER ALERT: It's a terribly animated clip of Hillary's talking points about Obama going in one end of a poorly drawn machine and having a crappily copied Obama 08 sticker come out the other end.)

[PardonMyFrenchFries]

I'm glad you liked it. Maybe others will too.

[valleygent]

Nice to see that Joe has a firm grasp of the obvious.

[ResearchGuy]

Hopefully, Biden will have a prominent role in the Obama administration -- or at least keep on keeping on in the Senate in a highly effective way.

[LizM]

But here's the rub...one fundamental reason why Senator Biden was even running for President was that he had come to the realization that what he hoped to accomplish - vis-a-vis extricating the US from the fiasco that is Iraq by promoting and facilitating a sustainable political settlement that would allow for a withdrawal of US forces without leaving a failed state behind - could not possibly be achieved from his perch in the Senate, as powerful as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its chairman are.

What Senator Biden hoped to accomplish, at home and abroad, could only be achieved from a position of power and leadership within the oval office.

I'd like to see anyone try to convince me that either of the Democratic candidates or the presumptive Republican nominee is similarly motivated.

[CountryBeforeParty]

Biden was the better choice than all three candidates remaining. You can thank the MSM, and a sense of entitlement in the Clinton/Obama camps for not thinking clearly.

[JohnTalbutt]

Bidens plan ignores 4000 years of history and goes back to an old Turk and Brittish model that, if it didn't work for them, will not work for us. We need to make safe withdrawal the mission of the military. When we get out we take all the people that the Iraqis will consider traitors for siding with the invaders and just leave.

Oh and by the way, Iraq will be forced to sell THEIR oil at market prices and the American people - not Cheney, not Bush, not Saudia Arabia not Blackwarter, not Halleburton - but the American people. That would be nice and patriotic for a change..

[farseer]

February 16, 2008: Lieutenant General Carter Ham says that, when the surge ends in July 2008, the number of troops left in the country will be greater than the initial number. ""It's likely that the number will be a little bit larger than the 132,000 or so that was the number of personnel on the ground pre-surge".

[The above is excerpts from the article on the surge found at wikipedia. Read more - including sources and references - at:]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War_troop_surge_of_2007

It's clear that the surge - like the rest of the war - has been a collossal mountain of murder, dropped on the heads of american soldiers by the Bush administration, at great cost to the welfare of the United States.

Let's remember that John McCain was one of the champions of the surge. "January 17 - Moveon.org released an ad that identifies the surge strategy as "McCain's idea". The NYT reports that [presidential candidate] "John Edwards has taken to referring to the administration proposal as 'the McCain Doctrine.'­" “The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own: impose its rule throughout the country,” McCain said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Jan. 12."

[ErikW65]

McCain has said that the Surge is not a tactic, but a whole new strategy, which is successful, where the previous strategy was not. This despite the fact that he had said a year earlier (Baghdad Marketplac­e...) that the previous strategy had worked, and that Iraq was safe at that time. Listening to McCain makes my head spin sometimes.

[farseer]

On February 16, 2007: the US House of Representatives passed a resolution opposing President Bush’s troop surge by a vote of 246-182.

April 26, 2007: Gen. Petraeus warns, the war in Iraq is, “‘exceedingly complex and very tough’ … and said the U.S. effort might become more difficult before before it gets easier.” He further states that, “We are just getting started with the new effort."

June 4, 2007: Former U.S. Commander In Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez states, “I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat,”

August 13, 2007: Statements by British lawmakers indicate England's lack of confidence in the surge. The Labour-led foreign affairs committee said boosting American forces on the streets of Baghdad even further would not bring an end to the violence, and was unlikely to succeed

September 2007: The U.S. troop surge hits its peak strength at 168,000. This number will be maintained until November 2007 when troops will begin drawdown..­.

September 11, 2007: General David Petraeus reported to the United States Congress on the progress of the Iraqi troop surge. In his report, he stated that the surge had largely met its military goals.

(continued in a 3rd and final post)

[farseer]

The surge is a spectacular failure. On Jan. 19, 2007, "During a news conference with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. George Casey estimated that the 21,500 additional U.S. troops sent to Iraq will only need to stay until around late summer."

At that same time,

"Three four star generals testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee advising that the US pull out of Iraq. Gen. Jack Keane said he recommended sending far more troops than the 21,500 envisaged in the president's plan and he also said he opposed allowing Iraqi military forces to take the leading role in the envisaged Baghdad operations. Giving Iraqi forces the lead role "makes no sense to me. I don't understand that," Keane said in his testimony. Barry McCaffrey said "I personally think the surge of five U.S. Army brigades and a few Marine battalions dribbled out over five months is a fool's errand." Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, the former head of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which includes the Iraq theater of operations, urged a full pull-out of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying "In the Marines, we say, 'When you're in a hole, stop digging.'" and the AP reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats ... will back a non-binding resolution "declaring that President Bush's decision to send additional troops to Iraq is 'not in the national interest of the US.'" ...

(cont'd in another post)

[MBFLA]

I would suggest that those of you who are so fond of the Bush/Cheney/McCain wars will really enjoy your 18 year old sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, neices and nephews being drafted because that is what is coming up next! It has to be since nobody is volunteering to replace the dead and wounded fast enough (why in the world would they?).

[Grannybj]

They would "volunteer" out of desperation—no jobs, no future, no hope for disadvantaged youth in America. Only "job" is trained killer in armed services.

[andyg]

McCain son served in Iraq.

[ClevelandTom]

Whatever happened to measuring progress against the 18 benchmarks that Bush himself defined as part of the surge strategy in January, 2007? Other than reducing violence, there has been essentially no progress on the other 17 benchmarks. Nevertheless, Bush and his supporters declare the surge a success.

Bush has managed to keep unbroken his streak of moving the goal posts in his Iraq adventure. He has managed to do this with the blind party loyalty of Republicans in Congress, a fairly compliant media, and just enough support from a minority of the public who, beyond all reason, think that Bush has the answer in Iraq.

[SupremeIdiot]

The benchmarks are in the same hole in Syria that the WMD's are in......he­h.

[ClevelandTom]

Is that were Bush is keeping all the good stuff? We might find Osama and parts of the Bill of Rights hidden there too.

[lornejl]

Repubs have never wanted to bring freedom to any country before Iraq, whats different about Iraq ?

[mamacat]

That is a very good question.
George decided to aim all his lies towards having a war in Iraq.
It seems McCain wants to expand Bush's war to Iran, if not further.

Why couldn't Bush have had a differnet first name? It used to be that I associated the name of George with George Washington. From now on, I will forever associate that name with perfidy and treason.

[plages]

No it isn't a failure, as its allowed the boy king to throw away billions to his friends, and ruin a nation or two. Not only that, its also allowed him to use up time in office, so that he can just walk away from his failed administration, while congress sat on their hands, or possibly their wallets!

[jeersforfears]

Written like an errand boy - or girl - for the New York Times editorial board. All the opinions fit to print, colored by a pinkish tint.

[BlueStateMan]

Prove it WRONG then, genius.

Stop regurgitating Rush's taking points.

[alfrede]

Hi,

The Republicans will continue to support the President which will thwart any attempt by the Democrats to end the war in Iraq.

As we get closer to November and if it appears that Senator McCain and the Republicans will lose the election, what will the President to do try to swing the election to the Republicans?

Will he announce that the US will leave Iraq and begin a withdrawal??

Would this be the only thing that will save his Presidency as a successful one?

What do U think??

[ErikW65]

I think we'll see an October surprise, but not like that, because that is against the corporate war profiteers' interests. It sounds devious enough, but it's too antithetical.

[Raymondf]

yOU CAN FORGET bUSH PULLING THE TROOPS OUT , HE WANT DO THAT NOWAY NOHOW.

[SupremeIdiot]

Junior, get off the computer, put your jammies on and stay in bed.

No, you can't have a drink of water.

heh...