Like a Surgin'

It's basically become accepted as gospel that the "surge" "worked", to the extent that the details are no longer even discussed in any real depth. For some reason (more money for the locals; more operational planning by CENTCOM; more direct cooperation between troops and locals) our noble intentions just finally worked, because the relative level of violence had dialed down from "daily bloodbath" to "less frequent carnage".

But the bombings are back in vogue, which ordinarily would tend to belie the earlier suppositions. Yet it doesn't even register much of a blip on the public radar. Iraq is very '07; Americans are more concerned with whether Kate Gosselin will scavenge enough alimony money to keep that Dennis the Menace haircut of hers.

Certainly some of the things about the "surge" did "work", but the questions were never asked -- how, and for whom? The Iraqi militias who were slaughtering their neighbors may have temporarily ran out of people to kill, or chose to lay low for a while to reconsolidate their positions. But the need to attribute all gains -- or even the apparent stemming of losses -- to our own efforts can easily lead to unpleasant surprises when the shit starts rolling again all of a sudden.

Consider: 150 people smithereened in three separate events over the past three weeks, in a country with less than two-thirds the population of California. If you had three bombs go off in three weeks anywhere in the US -- even if nobody got hurt in any of them -- half the country would be pulling their hair out like they'd fallen in a bucket of swine flu, and the other half would be screaming for martial law.

It's all very strange, how Afghanistan was the forgotten war at first, and now Iraq has taken that spot. Primarily this is because we are unable to view any foreign-policy issue outside of the context of our own immediate interests. Iraq "succeeds" or "fails" only to the degree that they sufficiently reform themselves to our wishes, and that we can take credit or deflect blame. The main thing is, whatever happens from here on out is Not Our Fault, until things come around, in which case We Meant To Do That Shit, and the rest of you assholes betta recognize.