Analyzing the Surge: A Creeping Suspicion

[TwilightGardener]

Any one else look at the strategy Petraeus is instituting in Baghdad, which is the installation of various mini-bases around the city, as a permanent means of surrounding and protecting the Green Zone and the upcoming big-ass embassy, rather than as a strategy of fighting insurgents?

[Raven]

1. More permanent bases? Where are you getting

this information? Very important to know what these guys are doing now!

[TwilightGardener]

3. I have no info--this is just my suspicion. Look, we do nothing

in Iraq for the Iraqis. Everything we do there is for our interests. And what better way to gain long-term control over the capital than to maintain a large presence that can protect the gov employees, diplomats and contractors when the oil deal is completed? How better to keep check on what Iran is doing in Baghdad? How better to insure that militias are controlled? How better to remind Iraqis daily who is really in charge there? Petraeus is Bush's go-to guy for a reason, and the reason ain't primarily to "win" or to protect Iraqis and American soldiers. It's to protect our vital interests.

[peacebird]

2. actually that thought occured to me as well.... further protect the emerald city

and pretend the average Iraqi is safer.....

[TwilightGardener]

5. Right--my guess is that even as commanders claim that

each neighborhood is "so much safer" because of our little mini-bases those neighborhoods, that doesn't mean you'll see us leaving when the violence subsides. How will we maintain control if we then leave?

[mb7588a]

4. Nothing will happen in this war until the oil is flowing,

and we all know it. By the time the Iraqis see any benefit of that happening, it'll be 5 years from now, and 3,000 more boys and girls from the USA will be KIA.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Exactly. We are there to protect "vital interests", and Baghdad

will be the center of operations. The surge has been portrayed as a "last-ditch" effort by a military genius, so that peace and prosperity can flow and our boys can finally come home. Bullshit. I believe we are setting up a permanent or at least long-term structure there to maintain control of the city. We are wiping out Sunnis to quell the violence (essentially doing the Shias' bidding). We don't care if the Sunnis and Shia get along, or treat each other fairly. We just want enough stability there so that Americans stop paying attention and stop demanding an end to our occupation. That's why the big PR push on the surge.

That's why the escalation is taking place now, now that Dems have control over the house and Senate--get our boys in there before the Dems can do anything about it, and it will be damn near impossible to get them out, except for maybe token small withdrawals for PR purposes in the next year or two, I predict.

[Auggie]

8. Then permanent bases in and around oil fields isn't that far-fetched either.

[Blackhatjack]

7. Iraqis know we are not going to walk away from the huge Embassy(base) we are building...

Since our occupation of Iraq, we have built numerous bases and landing strips in Iraq that can be used as staging points for air attacks anywhere in the Middle East.

Our weakest position is that the Green Zone and the new massive Embassy are static locations, easily identified and studied, and natural targets by the enemies.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Good point--everything we have done in Iraq will be for naught if we give up

control of the capital. By this I don't mean ending ALL the violence--we certainly want just enough so that the Iraqis become psychologically dependent on us for their safety, and we want them to go about their business relatively happily, accepting our presence and not turning on us and protesting. That's what all the "school-and-clinic" shit is for. Pure PR. Do I have my tinfoil hat pulled down tight today, or what--LOL!