Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[seabass]

>>>please explain how the increased troops during the surge has resulted in the casualty rate plummeting??<<<


I can't explain that and nobody else seems to have a good explanation either.....except you of course. For now I put more stock in reports from those who are actually in Iraq than from guys like you who's only objective appears to be some kind of face saving operation for George Bush and the war effort in general.


Admirals and generals are very careful to caution that these are very positive trends, but we can't read too much into them yet. Privately, what the strategists are telling me is that things could turn on a dime. We could see the violence revert back almost instantly. However, their belief is that that won't happen. Among the U.S. forces here, they have the -- they have the confidence they can keep the levels of violence to where they are now, until at least the summer of next year. But what happens after that, no one knows because the name of the game now, Wolf, is reconciliation. By building Sunni militias, by America essentially now working with 72,000 Sunni insurgents, putting 45,000 of them on the U.S. government payroll, that has seen a massive decline in attacks.

So, yes, I can feel changes. There is a certain life returning to the city. But, honestly, Wolf, this is a segregated metropolis. People live in heavily guarded sectarian enclaves. This is a world divided. There is still great tension, great distrust and, honestly, I don't see the path forward happening how most people hope.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0711/20/sitroom.02.html