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Academic

: Essentially Contested America

Just How Good Was 2007 in Iraq?

By Robert Justin Lipkin

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The International Press Service reports that "[d]espite all the claims of improvements, 2007 has been the worst year yet in Iraq. . . . One of the first big moves this year was the launch of a troop 'surge' by the U.S. government in mid-February. The goal was to improve bm:

security in Baghdad and the western al-Anbar province, the two most violent areas. By June, an additional 28,000 troops had been deployed to Iraq, bringing the total number up to more than 160,000. . . . By autumn, there were over 175,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq. This is the highest number of U.S. troops deployed yet, and while the U.S. government continues to talk of withdrawing some, the numbers on the ground appear to contradict these promises. . . . The Bush administration said the 'surge' was also aimed at curbing sectarian killings, and to gain time for political reform for the government of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. . . . During the surge, the number of Iraqis displaced from their homes quadrupled, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent. By the end of 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that there are over 2.3 million internally displaced persons within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country. . . . Iraq has a population around 25 million." For the entire article click here. For a scathing criticism of both Republicans and Democrats for buying the administration's tripe about the success of the surge click here.

I think it's fair to say that the surge has been somewhat effective. But the real question is effective to do what. 2007 has seen the death of American soldiers in higher numbers than any year of the war. Although, violence is down in Baghdad, the city has become fractionated. Neighborhoods defined in religious and ethnic terms are barricaded preventing the free flow of people, news, and products necessary to any thriving metropolis. Sunni insurgents have turned on Al-Qaeda but still refuse to swear allegiance to the central government. The "central government"! That's a laugh. The Maliki regime has not come an inch closer to making the hard decisions about security, unifying the country, the problem of homelessness and refugees, and the appropriate distribution of oil revenues. Is that Mr. Maliki's fault? Well sure, in part. But before we castigate Mr. Maliki consider this: "Blaming the prime minister of Iraq, rather than the president of the United States, for the spectacular failure of American policy, is cynical politics, pure and simple. It is neither fair nor helpful in figuring out how to end America's biggest foreign policy fiasco since Vietnam. That, of course, does not get Mr. Maliki off the hook. Indeed, "Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has been catastrophic for Iraq ever since he took over from the equally disastrous Ibrahim al-Jaafari more than a year ago." But Mr. Bush refuses to acknowledge that Iraq is a failed nation-state. Hoping for authentic democracy in Iraq is a pipe dream that only someone who insists that if he believes and hopes for something strongly enough, it will come to pass. The surge would have worked if it enabled Iraqi politicians to create the semblance of a free and viable government. There's no chance of that happening as long as the United States plays an active role in Iraq.