Why we should pull out now: Peace lies in the Iraqis' hands

Courtesy of Alternet:

The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq
By Brandon Friedman
DailyKos

When someone tells you that the "surge" is working, you must walk them through this chain of events:

On August 7, 2007, near the end of America's bloodiest summer in Iraq, the New York Times reported the following:

Attacks on American-led forces using a lethal type of roadside bomb said to be supplied by Iran reached a new high in July, according to the American military.

[...]

Such bombs [...] are used almost exclusively by Shiite militants.

The "Shiite militants" described by the New York Times were, in fact, members of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

[...]

Then, barely three weeks after the New York Times article ran, 50 Muslim pilgrims were slaughtered in sectarian fighting in Karbala. In response, Muqtada al-Sadr announced that he had

ordered his militia to suspend offensive operations for six months.

[...]

But rather than recognize this for what it was, notable Republicans and other right-wingers immediately began to spin the story as if this was the result of the "surge"[.]

clickhereforallofit

It's clear the US military presence HAS NO CONTROL over Iraq. They've got no credibility in the region either, never had it. Every government they try to set up fails, I wonder why. The best thing we can do is pull out all combat forces, give our "Green Zone" back to Iraqis, and switch the mission to "lets fix all the shit we blew up and put the Bush mob on trial." What ever government comes to power in Iraq after that, it shouldn't be too hostile towards us (at least in the long run) if we do what I just described.

Of course, the real issue at hand (that the corporate media will not touch with a ten foot pole) is that our government, our bureaucracy, Blackwater, Halliburton, the oil industry, and every leading presidential candidate, has NO PLAN TO LEAVE Iraq in this life time. There's too much money to be made, too many brown people to subjugate and kill It's gonna take a lot more opposition than the trendy, polite, "Bush sucks!" shit we've got right now, it's gonna take mass protests, EVERY DAY, for months or years, to get us out of the new Vietnam.

I think we can do it.