Mountain Runner and Tom Barnett ask and answer a really good question:
If the surge is working, why are we still losing?
Barnett goes to the heart of the question that really bothers me-namely if the surge is going so well, why are we being told that American troops will have to stay and stay and stay?
The question for now, I guess, is, does the Petraeus-Fallon-Mullen trio overcome the neocon camp still resident under Cheney? If not, can they at least temporize things until Bush is out of power?I would go farther than MountainRunner–and cynically so–to say Bush’s surge (not Petraeus’) was always about buying just enough internal security to facilitate drawdown and redirection on Iran.
And while you are at it, take a look at some of Mountain Runner’s words on the private contractors in Iraq-he raises some valid and provocative points.
