575 attacks A WEEK in Iraq doesn't mean the surge is working!!

[Breeze54]

Partial Progress In Iraq

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=d04bc056-142f-48be-aa45-5aa07187128e

Violence is down in Iraq, but political solution remains elusive

By The Day - Published on 11/20/2007

The troop surge in Iraq has been a strategic success, but now political progress in that country
must follow. The United States military reports that 575 attacks occurred last week, a huge
drop from June when Iraq appeared to be at the point of disintegration with 1,600 attacks a week.
The statistics look at attacks from car and roadside bombs, mortar and rocket fire and gunplay.
While 575 bombings and other forms of bloodletting is hardly normalcy, it is unmistakably
a big improvement for Iraq.

Violence has been reduced to a level not seen since before the February 2006 bombing of the Shiite
shrine in Samarra. Terrorists coldly calculated that attack to generate violence between Shiite and
Sunni Muslims. Unfortunately, they were successful.

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Despite such progress, the brutality of the enemy in Iraq was demonstrated again Sunday when a park
was bombed while American soldiers were handing out candy and soccer balls to local children. Killed
were three soldiers and several children.

Reducing violence by maintaining a large occupying army in Iraq is not the goal. It should be
a means to end, providing the stability for Iraqis to address their religious and tribal differences
and instill a functioning federal government that can protect its people and equitably share oil revenues.

Unfortunately, by that measure there has been little or no progress. The lull in violence should
have provided an opportunity for political advancement. So far it has been an opportunity lost.
Iraqi leaders must realize that the patience of the U.S. people is not limitless. Eventually the
United States must begin bringing its soldiers home, if not during this presidency, than very likely
under the next.

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