THE "SURGE" IN IRAQ ISN'T WORKING, BUT THE PR FOR IT HAS

There is an old bromide which says if you repeat something over and over and long enough you will get the people to believe it.

That is exactly what has been happening with "the surge" in Iraq.

The Bush administration and their propaganda machine, FOX NEWS, plus scores of Republican pundits have repeated over and over again how "the surge" is working in Iraq.

But is it?

On Thursday, two car bombs went off in Baghdad and the death toll is 83 with over 130 wounded.

On Friday, another suicide bombing took place in Mosul and the death toll is 67 with another 140 injured.

But still you have President Bush and pundits on FOX NEWS like Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Bill O'Reilly, Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer just to name a few boasting about how well "the surge" is working.

Nothing could be further from the truth and the following article by Patrick Cockburn spells out why the "surge" isn't working, but the public relations campaign for the "surge" has been a roaring success.

By Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunchPosted on March 8, 2008, Printed on March 8, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/79037/

In Baghdad the Iraqi government is eager to give the impression that peace is returning.

"Not a single sectarian murder or displacement was reported in over a month," claimed Brigadier Qasim Ata, the spokesman for the security plan for the capital.

(Editor's note: Ata's comment was made before the twin car bombings on Thursday in Baghdad)

In the US, the Surge, the dispatch of 30,000 extra American troops in the first half of 2007, is portrayed as having turned the tide in Iraq. Democrats in Congress no longer call aggressively for a withdrawal of American troops. The supposed military success in Iraq has been brandished by Senator John McCain as vindication of his prowar stance.

Seldom has the official Iraqi and American perception of what is happening in Iraq felt so different from the reality. Cocooned behind the walls of the Green Zone, defended by everybody from US soldiers to Peruvian and Ugandan mercenaries, the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki pumps out alluring tales of life returning to normal that border on fantasy.

For instance, Brigadier Ata made his claim that there had been no sectarian murders or expulsions in the capital over the previous month on February 15, but two weeks earlier, on February 1, suicide bombers, whom the government said were al-Qa'ida, had blown themselves up killing 99 people in two bird markets in Baghdad, both situated in largely Shia districts.

So keen are the authorities to show that Sunni and Shia have stopped killing each other and overall violence is down that many deaths with an obvious sectarian motive are no longer recorded. "I think the real figure for the number of people being killed is about twice what the government says it is," said one local politician. He had just sent the death certificates of the victims of sectarian killers to the military authorities, who were steadfastly refusing to admit that anybody had died at the time and place that the bodies were discovered.

One day after Brigadier Ata claimed that there had been no sectarian killings or abductions over the previous month, prime minister Maliki himself went on a walk about in central Baghdad to demonstrate just how safe things have become. But it was the precautions taken by Maliki's bodyguards which were more revealing about the real state of security in the city.

Maliki's brief venture onto the streets and out of the Green Zone took place in the al-Mansur district of west Baghdad. This is an area of big houses and many embassies, but has been heavily fought over by Sunni and Shia in the past year. "I was in Mansur on Saturday afternoon," an Iraqi friend told me, "when, at about 3.15pm, I noticed a strange movement in the street, which was suddenly flooded by soldiers in green uniforms, led by generals and colonels, who were checking parked cars and all the buildings."

Minutes later a large convoy of vehicles appeared, with three US army Humvees in front and behind, and, in the middle, five black armoured four wheel drives They stopped in front of a famous ice cream shop called al-Ruwaad, but for fifteen minutes nobody got out of the vehicles as soldiers searched all the shops nearby. When officials and their guards did begin to emerge Maliki was in the middle of them and began to walk around.

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