Iraqi City Once Hailed As Success Story By Bush, Now Torn By ‘Wave Of Revenge Killings’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/29/tal-afar-bush/

Iraqi City Once Hailed As Success Story By Bush, Now Torn By ‘Wave Of Revenge Killings’

In March 2006, President Bush spoke about progress in the Iraq war and used the city of Tal Afar in northwest Iraq as a shining example of a “strategy that worked so well.” Bush noted that al-Qaeda had been vanquished and the city had become “safer and fairer”:

See, if you’re a resident of Tal Afar today, this is what you’re going to see: You see that the terrorist who once exercised brutal control over every aspect of your city has been killed or captured, or driven out, or put on the run. You see your children going to school and playing safely in the streets. You see the electricity and water service restored throughout the city. You see a police force that better reflects the ethnic and religious diversity of the communities they patrol…The example of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy.

One year later:

Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents in the northwestern town Wednesday, killing as many as 60 people, officials said.

The gunmen roamed Sunni neighborhoods in the city through the night, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician.

Tal Afar is a victim of Bush’s escalation, which has displaced sectarian violence from Baghdad to other areas of the country. Deaths of Iraqi civilians and troops have actually increased outside of the capital.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum has more on the story of Tal Afar.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_03/011032.php

[az chela]

1. Well this is progress!!!!

Stupid schoolyard bully shrub thinks he is actually winning this war

[Theduckno2]

2. Someone needs to tell Sen. Joe Lieberman!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2786642

This whole idea of pacifying Baghdad as a key to success is foolish.

Can anyone say with certainty that the South would have won the Civil War if they had taken Washington D.C.? That Germany would have prevailed if they had taken Moscow?

Yet Bushco would have us believe that Baghdad is the key to victory in Iraq. The same Bushco that predicted "turning points" at Iraqi sovereignty (snicker), adoption of a constitution and elections held under said constitution.

So many turning points I am getting dizzy. :crazy: