|
Facts Belie
Petraeus’ Case, Say Humanitarian Groups
By Aaron Glantz
09/14/07 "OneWorld
US " -- - -
PROVIDENCE - Observers of the situation in Iraq lashed out
at the Bush administration Thursday ahead of the president’s
prime time address to the nation.
They contend that General David Petraeus gave a misleading
report to Congress this week when he said “significant progress”
was being made in Iraq, including a sharp drop in the number of
attacks on American forces and a lessening of sectarian
violence.
“What people came away with from the report is that the
situation is better for people living in Iraq and that’s just
not true,” said Yifat Susskind of the women’s rights
organization MADRE. “That’s refuted both by the fact that
statistics don’t bear it out and in the experiences of the
regular Iraqis we speak to on a daily basis.”
A joint ABC/BBC poll released this week shows 70 percent of
Iraqis believe security has deteriorated since the Bush
administration increased the number of troops in Iraq this
Spring. Some 60 percent believe attacks on U.S. forces are
justified, a number that includes 93 percent of Sunnis.
According to the poll, only 29 percent of Iraqis now think the
situation will get better, compared to 64 percent who shared
that optimism before the so-called “surge” of troops began.
“One of the most cynical things General Petraeus did was
celebrate the fact that there’s a decline in sectarian
violence,” Susskind said. “But that drop reflects the success of
ethnic cleansing rather than anything the U.S. military has
done. The reality is that there are places where killing is down
because there’s nobody left to kill.”
According to the group Refugees International, nearly 5 million
Iraqis have been forced from their homes since the fall of
Saddam Hussein. More than 2 million people are now displaced
inside the country, the group says, and an additional 2.5
million have fled to neighboring countries.
The numbers continue to grow with as many as 100,000 per month
newly displaced within the country and another 40,000 to 60,000
fleeing to Syria.
The Bush administration has allowed only a few thousand Iraqis
to enter the United States.
In addition, two retired Generals — Lt. General Robert Gard
(U.S. Army, Retired), who now works at the Center for Arms
Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, and Brigadier
General John Johns (U.S. Army, Retired), a board member at the
non-profit Council for a Livable World — released a statement
arguing the continued American occupation of Iraq is destroying
the U.S. military.
“Continued engagement in Iraq’s civil war distracts the United
States from our more urgent missions in Afghanistan and enhanced
homeland security, stretches the U.S. military to the breaking
point, inflicts psychological scars on returning veterans and
breaks up their families, causes mounting American casualties,
increases the drain on the U.S. treasury, and erodes our stature
in the world,” the Generals wrote in a statement.
Gard, who served in combat during both the Korean and Vietnam
wars, said Petraeus’ report and Bush’s speech tonight remind him
of 1967, when then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told
President Lyndon Johnson that he thought the Vietnam war was
lost.
“Lyndon Johnson privately agreed, but no president wants to lose
a war,” Gard told OneWorld. “So we surged. In 1968, we had lost
24,000 young men. Five years later we had lost 58,000 and
nothing was accomplished.”
“Now we’re going down the same path,” he said. “We didn’t alter
the outcome by that surge and now you’ve got Bush in office and
he isn’t going to be changed unless he’s forced to do so.”
© 2007 OneWorld.net
Click
on "comments" below to
read or post comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We
encourage engaging, diverse and
meaningful commentary. Do not
include personal information such
as names, addresses, phone
numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines
– those including personal
attacks and profanity – are
not permitted.
See our complete
Comment
Policy and
use
this link to notify us if you
have concerns about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and
remove any inappropriate
postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
