"String of Attacks Kills Dozens in Iraq" WSJ

"At least 55 people were killed in about two dozen bombings and shootings, most of them targeting police, across Iraq on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. said it had met an end-of-month deadline for the withdrawal of combat forces.

The attacks, the latest in a series of high-profile and seemingly coordinated bombings and targeted shootings, have shaken confidence in Iraq's security forces as they prepare to take over from the U.S., which officially ends its combat mission here on Aug. 31."  WSJ

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I am not going to comment.  What would be the point?  pl

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575450781081946758.html

Comments

[zanzibar]

Pat

Yes, what's the point in commenting when all that can be said is - "I told you so".

But, maybe its worth commenting when you add up the stories from the Iraq debacle to the longer than WWII Afghan "mission" with dubious objectives to Iran strike threats to Likudnik infiltration of our legislative and excutive branches to the continued impoverishment of the middle class - its clearly not stupidity or bumbling idiots or misguided policies since the facts are clear and self-evident. So, what is the geo-political end game? And what will the pawns do?

[Medicine Man]

Somehow I don't think "neener neener" is exactly a meaningful comment on this turn of events. Mind you, I'm sure plenty of people will be saying some version of just that. I look forward to listening them in between listening to others complain that there are still US troops in Iraq.

Yes, this was predicted. By the same token, a time in the future where a US withdrawal from Iraq would not be followed by horrors and moral outrages was predicted to be far, far off—prohibitively so. Or at least if there is a time in the near future (next couple of years) that would serve as a better exit point, I haven't heard it.

There isn't much to be happy about save that quite a few American soldiers are returning home; whatever the next stage is in Iraq, they have nothing to be ashamed of.

[walrus]

MM:

"Somehow I don't think "neener neener" is exactly a meaningful comment on this turn of events."

I think the point is that we have lost the ability to influence events, except in a more negative way, hence our prattlings on the matter don't matter any more.

The subject of Iraq can now be relegated to the same status as all the other distasteful topics, like Zimbabwe.

[johnf]

O/T but there's no Iran thread at the moment.

I still think the chances of an attack on Iran are almost zilch.

What determines a citizen's vote more than anything - his sense of economic well-being. How prosperous does he or she feel. Obama - like every other politician - is totally aware of this. At the moment America seems poised on the edge of a second downturn. House prices are falling, unemployment continues to increase.

Obama is hanging on to power by the skin of his teeth. Is he really going to instigate an event which will double or treble the price of oil overnight? Send the economy plummeting even further into depression?

Congress can pose and point on this one because it knows it cannot instigate an attack. Only the Executive can do that. They can gain political advantage by painting Obama as weak, but were they in the same position as him with the economy as fragile as it is - they would do the same as him.

Which leaves, I know, the False Flag attack by the Likudniks. But I should imagine that the American intelligence agencies are watching out for this with particular vigilance.

[HankP]

Col. Lang -

I have to disagree. It's important to repeat exactly what mistakes were made and why those mistakes were made so that we can avoid them in the future. I assure you that those who seek further military adventures will show no such reticence.

[William R. Cumming]

PL would welcome any discussion of the level of coordination of the attacks and who in Iraq has that capability?

[WILL]

what level of violence is acceptable in a political vacuum? different people have different answers & will reference different benchmarks.

andrew exum, abu-muqawama, says
" David Galula's Pacification in Algeria, 1956-1958 .... Galula's definition of success can be accurately applied to the United States in Iraq. Here is Galula's definition:

Victory is won and pacification ends when most of the counterinsurgent forces can safely be withdrawn, leaving the population to take care of itself with the help of a normal contingent of police and Army forces.""

most sane people will concede the adventure was 1. misconceived AB INITIO, 2. mismanaged from 2003-2006, 3. COIN, aka, the surge was only one component among the SUNNI awakening, Mookie militia standown, that led to the tamping down of violence.

AND COIN would not have been necessary had not the occupation been so MISMANAGED by the NeoKons!

[Bart]

LA Times reports that "Pudge" Kagan has been hired by Petreaus to help out in AfPak.

http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/latimes00299.html

Wife Kimberley will be so happy!

[Fred]

At least the neocons have full employment. Thanks Obama.

[Medicine Man]

I'm in agreement with you then, Walrus.

[dh]

There have been some extremely significant events in Iraq recently. Ahmed Chalabi has aligned himself with the Sadrists against Maliki. And the Shahwa are feeling abandoned.

[walrus]

Will:

"AND COIN would not have been necessary had not the occupation been so MISMANAGED by the NeoKons!"

What makes you think the Iraq war was mismanaged? If the Neocons and Likudniks objective is to create a state of perpetual war between the United States and Islam, they have succeeded brilliantly!

[WILL]

@the tusked one
there are three elements to a crime: 1 the act; the mental state (mens rea); and concurrence.

absent some advanced medical forensics, the mental state, intent, or conscious design has to be inferred from the circumstances & from the acts of the actors. I have always maintained that the Neokons such as Douglas Feith & his ilk purposefully designed the total destruction of the institutions secular Iraki state. Okkam's razor- the simplest explanation. the disbanding of the Army, the looting of universities, the poser grid, the flight of the Christians, the Sunni, the educated. the intended beneficiary was the Zionist colonial project by removing the strategic depth from the secular states of Syria & Jordan.

But this was MISMANAGEMENT from the viewpoint of the strategic interests of the United States of America & the security of its armed forces, in particular its forces that were deployed there.

From the shortsighted viewpoint of the Israeli Firsters, it was coup de Main.

Treason, yes.

Has the populace of the Etados Unidos learned anything from the Mesopotamanian adventure? Hell No?

They are ready to go to war to deny the Persicos their treaty rights to enrich Uranium for peaceful purposes on behalf of a nation that has nukes that REFUSES TO SIGN THE NON-PROFILERATION TREATY?

C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute

how many such gratituous mistakes can the U.S. make & afford?