Satellite Shows Ethnic Cleansing In Iraq Was Key Factor In "Surge" Success

Reuters:

WASHINGTON - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi'ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

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[StillAmused]

You'll never convince McSurley... HE knows the turning point was when he showed his manly chest (well, maybe behind a shirt, a ballistic vest, a rifle squad and a couple of hovering gunships) while "shopping" in that Baghdad market.

Yep... Johnny called out the evildoers, and they all ran for cover.

(Or, maybe, what really scared them was the sight of the lovely Lindsey Graham)

[fact finder]

Was'nt Saddam hung for this type of action.? OR WAS HE? MAYBE HE JUST HAD PLASTIC SURGERY AND CHANGED HIS NAME TO GEORGE BUSH sorry caps lock stuck.

[maveman]

we sat by and let it happen so the stats would look good for bush and friends---we do not belong there and Obama must get us out--the old candidate would not and certainly pistol packing palin doesn't know Iraq exists!!!

[moongal6]

Why don't you all just change your culture, damn it!!!!!!
How dare we ask a culture thousands of years old, to just CHANGE, 'cause we said so.
Be Democratic damn it.
It isn't going to work, it just won't.
All the precious lives already wasted.
We need to leave, now.

[Hollis-Greene]

Gee, what a shock...

This is an illegal war, period.

Gasoline was just over a $ in 2001 and now it's over $4...

http://zfacts.com/p/35.html

When will people wake up and realize this was a money making operation using our sons and daughters. The oil these criminals are drilling for in IRAQ is being sold on the open Market.

We've been lied to bigtime!

OBAMA 08

[BabsfromKansas]

Yet more tragedy in the loss of civilian lives.

Bush never should have invaded Iraq in the first place - he and his minions need to be tried as the war criminals.

Obama is right - the surge has not worked. There is no "victory" here, merely a repression of historic ethnic hostilities.

[Passenger57]

Bush went into Iraq with too few troops in order to stay there longer...
You have a huge house,and you hire some guys by the hour to paint it. If they want to get the job done - and done right - they would go in with a whole lot of guys,some moving furniture,some masking off windows,covering floors,some buying paint,and then when that's all done they would all knock out the painting part.They'd be done,they'd get paid,they leave.
If they want to stretch out the job and stay longer,two guys go in,look around,one starts masking off stuff,but he runs out of tape,he goes to the store,takes all day in there,they decide not to mask off everything,but just paint "real carefully",spill some paint,do a bad job of cleaning it up,get some on the rug,take long lunches,the next day one guy calls in sick...
When Shinseki told Bush that we needed 400,000 troops in there,Bush and Cheney said ; "Baah! Reality! Honesty! What do you think we're doing - REAL liberation?? Who let this guy in here? GUARDS! SEIZE HIM!"

[genia]

The low life bas turds....they knew this ethnic cleansing was going on, they watched it ...knowing the outcome they launched the surge.
....and that is why news of this ethnic cleansing has been kept quiet.

[abouttime]

Hell, the US financed it!
Made it happen with money and guns!

[abouttime]

Not news to those who get "information about US and world events" ouside the mainstream media. The "Surge, (I hope you all recognize by now) was pure neocon propaganda. We knew it then -on day one it was used - but it became a favorite of the MSM. It was all bull, and so very obvious to those willing to see the truth!
US out of Iraq!

[marymansour]

The average d i c k brain who is voting for McCain won't understand this.

[AmandaBC]

Even worse, he/she won't even try!!

[ralph10]

Aw!! What's Joe Lieberman going to do about his successful surge amendment?

[LiberalBuzz]

Not to sound to smug on something that is basically tragic news. But I've been saying this since before the surge started.

I told a story a couple of years ago about a neighbor who went back to his second tour and he told me upon his return that this is what they saw daily. Bodies with notes pinned to them telling all the people of a different ethnic/religious background to leave or all of them would look like this. He said on some patrols they saw so many bodies, headless usually, that they couldn't count them.

They saw tens of thousands of Iraqi's leaving their homes, sometimes in the middle of the night and entire blocks empty of certain ethnic groups within days and weeks. Within the year, the cleansing was for all intents and purposes complete. He and his fellow troops saw right through the surge policy. The top brass let D.C. know about the ethnic cleansing and D.C. decided to send in troops and then claim credit for the drop in violence.

When the neighborhoods had been cleansed of those deemed undesirable then the violence dropped because the people they hated were gone.

All the troops did was...well show up.

[abouttime]

RE - "Not to sound to smug on something that is basically tragic news. But I've been saying this since before the surge started."

Truly, millions of Americans knew as well, but the MSM, who censored the truth about the lies of the neocons before the US invasion of Iraq, ate it up ("the surge") and betrayed us again!

Fools are those who repeat the same act with the same negative effect each time.

America has lots of fools.

[lornejl]

We don't like to talk about ethnic cleansing, we prefer the topic to be about how successful the surge was.

[LiberalBuzz]

That is it in a nutshell.

USA!
USA!
USA!

Is the only way they look at it.

The idea that the surge had little to do with it makes the USA NUMBER1! crowd uncomfortable.

[danoj]

I don't know Obama said the surge succeeded beyond anyones wildest dreams. More to the point, the article gives no examples of ethnic cleansing. says people up and left, says people are displaced, talks about ethnic cleansing but offers no proof.

[lornejl]

You bought hook line and sinker the wmd nonsense, you are dismissed tro//, you have no cred.

[Bushwillresign]

Banjo: The success of the McCain surge was the payment of cash to "insurgents" so they wouldn't "be a bother anymore.
Also, there was much less t.v. coverage so everyone thinks the Iraq war is over.
And wait, there's more, the ethnic cleansing that you don't quite understand. The surge turned out to be another big propaganda pile of, well, you know banjo.

[Passenger57]

Obama said the surge was to make the environment hospitable to negotiations between Iraqis amongst themselves,so we could leave...we're still there.

[LaFilleEnRose]

It's about time this truth got out. I hope Obama plans on bringing it up in the debates and in later ads. He needs to hammer this home. What Biden has said and what Obama has said is the truth. If you divide the factions...of course violence will come down. How many (2,000,000??) refugees are in other countries. That helps, too.

[andvoodoo2]

Do you really think repug voters truly give a sh*t about Iraqi refugees? Repug voters didn't care about Americans who were stuck on their rooftops after the levees failed in New Orleans. They couldn't possibly care less about people that most of them still believe were responsible for 9/11!

[danoj]

I can tell you I do not give a sh*t about iraqi refugees.

[BridgeTooFar]

Didn't Milosevic go to prison for doing same thing?

[AmandaBC]

Yep, and a lot of SS officers were hanged for crimes the US military commits on a daily basis... You know, like mu_rdering civilians...