Cole in Salon on the Surge
My column at Salon.com on Senator Lugar’s revolt over the Iraq surge is now available online.
Excerpt:
‘ June 28, 2007 | Earlier this week Sen. Richard Lugar, the senior Republican from Indiana, dismissed the U.S. “surge” in Iraq as unlikely to succeed. He condemned any illusions about staying the course. “We have overestimated what the military can achieve, we have set goals that are unrealistic, and we have inadequately factored in the broader regional consequences of our actions,” Lugar said from the Senate floor.His alarm has been illustrated by the difficulties the U.S. and Iraqi militaries faced in the recent offensive operation dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” aimed at subduing Baquba (pop. 300,000), the restive capital of Diyala province, located 31 miles northeast of Baghdad. American generals admitted that 80 percent of the guerrilla leadership there had slipped away, and that the Iraqi army lacked the equipment and training to hold areas taken in difficult hand-to-hand fighting. The U.S. military compounded its public-relations problem by implausibly branding virtually everyone it fought or killed in the Sunni-majority city as “al-Qaida.” ‘
On the surge, see also Tomdispatch on “the Surge”