www.justiceblind.com


Kicking Ass in Iraq?
Matthew Robinson, PhD

According to a recent report from the Associated Press (AP), the surge in Iraq has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from its highest level earlier in the year. That’s the good news.

The AP reports that militant fighters have moved away from US led offensives into northern Iraq in order to step up attacks elsewhere. In criminology, this is called displacement, where crime simply moves from one place to another in response to criminal justice activities. This is clearly not the same as crime prevention, whereby crime is actually stopped or greatly reduced. That’s the bad news.

More bad news is that overall deaths from attacks around the country are almost double what they were a year ago. So, our surge has moved some killings northward while doubling them overall! Thus, there is no question that the surge has failed.

While President Bush continues to make absurd and uninformed speeches about parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, the only parallels that matter are: 1) we lost Iraq just like we did Vietnam; and 2) Bush missed both of the fights.

Now, for those who learn these facts, throw their hands in the air and exclaim "Well it's too late to leave now, we’re already there!" or who ask – "Well what can we do about it now?" – my response is simple: Our presence has made nothing better. The least we can do is not sacrifice any more of our own people for this disaster.

And there is something we can do. We can hold President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other members of this administration accountable for this monstrous war. To learn what you can do now, go to http://www.impeachbush.org.