NYT: Patterns of War Shift in Iraq Amid U.S. Buildup

[frogcycle]

Not a very encouraging report.

And yet, even the NYT can't get the statistics right.

They compare the "seven weeks since the surge began" to the "previous period" and say it is roughly the same overall. They neglect to note the cyclical pattern, repeated each year, of a drop in fatalities in the feb/march timeframe. That period for this year - the "surge" period - is double what it was in previous years. The "prior period" they compare to includes most of december'06 - the third-highest rate since the war began.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/world/middleeast/09surge.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

like global warming, the establishment is going to continue denying the increase in fatalities until it is undeniable. And that means many, many more kids sent into hell on "search and destroy missions" to disarm bombs or ferret out bad guys that Iraqis should be doing.

This crap about the Iraqis still needing more training is just that - crap. We send a recruit to 9 weeks of training, skip the desert training phase, send him over there and he gets shot dead two hours into his first combat mission. He did not need to be manning that lookout post.Iraqis should have been. The frigging insurgents are Iraqis, and they seem to have learned quite well without benefit of the US's excellent training. They learn their trade and go about it, and so could the Iraqi police and military. If we would just get the hell out of there and leave it to them, they would sink or swim. I rather suspect that after an initial bloodbath the "good Iraqi's" would suck it up and deal with the problem.

[yourout]

1. If they really want to get the bad guys have McCain travel to a known bad spot with a brigade for...

a photo op and have him leave. Then set a trap the next day when the insurgents try to take out anyone that was within breathing distance of McCain.

[Kagemusha]

2. I'm not totally convinced it's a training issue either.

These US troops would have a harder time fighting if they knew that criminal organizations were prepared to rough up or even violently kill members of their family should they engage Iraqi insurgents in combat. That is not a "training" issue. I'm just throwing out one example of many.