...Where the surge didn't work and where the war hasn't largely ended. From one NYT item, we learn several things, beginning with the indoctrination of children...
[Al Qaida in Mesopotamia] “wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, an American spokesman, at a briefing about the group’s use of women and children. Military officials say they believe that the tapes are used during sessions with children in “the process of indoctrination and training that starts early to ensure they grow up to become future terrorists when they become of age,” he said.
In the tape, some of the boys look as if they are scarcely more than 10 or 11 years old, while others appear to be teenagers.
The war has largely ended? This war will largely never be over because George W. Bush's ridiculous policies have fostered multiple generations of anti-American sentiment in the region. And this will go away with troop surges and delusional talking points? Nope.
And remember the civil war? It hasn't really gone away:
In Anbar Province, tensions between Sunni factions appeared to be high. The tribal Awakening Council, which is now the most powerful group in the province but which lacks political influence, said it was giving members of the Iraqi Islamic Party 30 days to vacate the seats it holds in the provincial council.
One last thing...
Different accounts continued to emerge Wednesday in the American military’s killing of three people near Tikrit on Tuesday. Those killed were a farmer, his wife and his son; at least one daughter was wounded.
In a statement released Wednesday, the American military said its soldiers were fired on when they entered the house. As they moved through the house, they shot one man who was “holding a woman as a human shield.” A second man was killed by a soldier who believed the man had “hostile intent.”
Did incidents like this happen in Japan, Germany and Korea after those wars ended? Our soldiers continue to be faced with similarly impossible scenarios every damn day, and an enemy that's hidden within the population. How are they supposed to respond? How are they supposed to survive with these impossible odds? This is Iraq, 2008. Anyone tells you that this war has "largely ended" or that "the surge worked" is quite simply full of shit.
(h/t Aravosis)