PBS's Washington Week tells us Obama won't "admit" he was "wrong" on the surge.

[JohnWxy]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6543726

[DogPoundPup]

1. Read Juan Coles 'A Social History of the Surge '

<snip>
Proponents are awfully hard to pin down on what the "surge" consisted of or when it began. It seems to me to refer to the troop escalation that began in February, 2007. But now the technique of bribing Sunni Arab former insurgents to fight radical Sunni vigilantes is being rolled into the "surge" by politicians such as John McCain. But attempts to pay off the Sunnis to quiet down began months before the troop escalation and had a dramatic effect in al-Anbar Province long before any extra US troops were sent to al-Anbar (nor were very many extra troops ever sent there). I will disallow it. The "surge" is the troop escalation beginning winter of 2007. The bribing of insurgents to come into the cold could have been pursued without a significant troop escalation, and was.

Aside from defining what proponents mean by the "surge," all kinds of things are claimed for it that are not in evidence. The assertion depends on a possible logical fallacy: post hoc ergo propter hoc. If event X comes after event Y, it is natural to suspect that Y caused X. But it would often be a false assumption. Thus, actress Sharon Stone alleged that the recent earthquake in China was caused by China's crackdown on Tibetan protesters. That is just superstition, and callous superstition at that. It is a good illustration, however, of the very logical fallacy to which I am referring.

<snip>
As best I can piece it together, what actually seems to have happened was that the escalation troops began by disarming the Sunni Arabs in Baghdad. Once these Sunnis were left helpless, the Shiite militias came in at night and ethnically cleansed them. Shaab district near Adhamiya had been a mixed neighborhood. It ended up with almost no Sunnis. Baghdad in the course of 2007 went from 65% Shiite to at least 75% Shiite and maybe more. My thesis would be that the US inadvertently allowed the chasing of hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs out of Baghdad (and many of them had to go all the way to Syria for refuge). Rates of violence declined once the ethnic cleansing was far advanced, just because there were fewer mixed neighborhoods.

Everyone should read this at http://www.juancole.com/2008/07/social-history-of-surge.html to debunk this 'surge' nonsense.

[MinM]

2. This seems to be the Meme of the Week in the M$M...

from PBS to CBS:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3672446

[JohnWxy]

3. Please, don't get me started on KC. She was a cheerleader in college and she still is cheering for

the "team". She is doing what CBS wants - protecting them from Fascist assaults. SHe's paid to be an idiot. They know that's what the GOP wants.

Plus, I suspect she doesn't wear panties - for the entertainment of the director and producers and the crew(and I'm sure she enjoys seeing their appreciation of her 'talents' - that's why she's smiling!).

>>> I know, this is in bad taste, but Katy Couric is 'bad taste' personified.