"There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters." Daniel Webster

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Is Iraq Unraveling?

Tom Ricks isn't the only one asking that question. Violence is starting to pick up and the government is starting to turn on the so-called Awakening forces rather than bring them into the armed forces as promised.

Many observers argued that "the Surge" didn't really change anything in that country. What really counted was Al Qaeda overstepping itself and alienating the Sunniy population and the United States paying off insurgents not to fight it. Those factors papered over but did not change the fundamental fractures in the country. Daniel Larison says the Surge's failure was predicted years ago.

Andrew Sullivan has more.

But the Republican echo chamber and neo-cons have already been wroking on their "stabbed in the back" argument. The Surge, they'll argue, did work until it was undercut by the evil and incompentent Obama administration.

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