Nir Rosen views on the surge
In his interview to Mike Whitney, Nir Rosen said that to call operation Iraq a surge is misleading. He said that surge is fast; where this took months. Its more like an ooze in which U.S. barely increased the number of troops, they just forced already stressed American soldiers to stay longer. At the same time, U.S. has doubled their enemies; in addition to Shiite militias they are also encountering the Shiite Mahdi army. Commenting on the level of violence being brought down because of the surge, he said ”Objectively speaking, the violence is down in Baghdad, but that’s mainly due to the failure of the US to establish security. That’s not success…Sure, less people are being killed but that’s because there are less people to kill.”
It’s not the power of surge that has reduced the number of people being killed in Iraq everyday. If you look closely there are different attributes which is bringing the toll down. Firstly, Iraq is a country where violence and civil war has left thousand displaced, Shiite militias trying to get rid of Sunnis while Sunni militias are hunting down Shiites, Kurds and Christians. There are just less people to kill. Secondly U.S. never expected that Mehdi army will be ordered to halt action against Shiites and foreign forces or Sunnis to work with U.S. to prepare for the next battle. One important fact that most living in peace neglects is the truth of humans trying to find normalcy amongst the most abnormal situations. Cont…
________________________________________________
Nir Rosen is the author of In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. He has spent more than two years in Iraq reporting on the American occupation, his reporting and research is also focused on the origins and development of Islamist resistance, insurgency, and terrorist organizations. He has also reported from Somalia, where he investigated Islamist movements; Jordan, where he investigated the origins and future of the Zarqawi movement; and Pakistan, where he investigated the madrassas and pro-Taliban movements.