'The surge is working'

Earlier this year I wrote for The Guardian and urged its readers to 'give the surge a chance'.  The thread produced by my piece was, shall we say, lively!  On the back of General Petraeus' report I have written again for the BBC's favourite newspaper (the Corporation recruits nearly all of its journalists from it) and suggested that the surge might be working.  You never know, one or two readers might be prepared to think again...

Comments

[Steevo]

Michael Yon: "General David Petraeus's first day of testimony was completely accurate, and consistent with my recent experiences around Iraq. Everything he said during the public hearing on Monday was measured, cogent, and demonstrably accurate. That his reputation was attacked in an entirely inaccurate full-page advertisement in the New York Times is a smear on the reputation of the New York Times."

And some advice from him for journalists covering the Petraeus report and who to talk with if they question any of his statements. "As for the infantry battalion commanders, they are the proverbial sweet spot. Battalion command sergeant majors can be excellent, too, but they often will not go on record. Battalion commanders will tend to be willing to go on record, and will tend to talk to journalists."

So, Petraeus' words will be challenged by commanders in the field. Let the elite journos find them!

And this from Glenn Reynolds: "ALL SERVICES met or exceeded recruiting goals last month. Interestingly, the Army and Marines, where enlistment is most likely to result in Iraq combat duty, did the best. I'm not sure exactly what this means, but it seems like good news."

[Joanna]

Steevo,

In Robert Kaplan's book Imperial Grunts he quotes an Army Foreign Area Officer who challenged him to look up the reenlistment rate of soldiers who had served in Macedonia, predicting that it was much higher than those who had stayed on garrison duty in Germany, for instance. The Army officer pointed out that this is what the soldiers were trained for. Of course they want to use what they've learned, and the sense that they are doing something meaningful makes them more, not less likely to reenlist.

[Steevo]

Hi Joanna. Your post immediately reminds me of what I read a couple days ago. Iraq's Anbar province (the heart of the Sunni Triangle) was written off by many not long ago. Al-Qaeda had taken over and many of the residents feared the Americans. It has been notorious as Iraq's most violent north and Ramadi one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Now, it may be the safest city in all of Iraq with the exception of Kurdistan.

Much of the work by the American soldiers is training the Iraqis, both soldiers and police. And part of this is how to be good citizens to establish respect and trust from the residents. The Americans are also helping with the supplies such as food and basic necessities, infrastructure etc. When they patrol it is very light duty in comparison to previous times.

Some of them have griped. Its just rather boring. They're soldiers at heart not community care-takers so to speak. I suspect they probably would not have volunteered to serve if this was all that was required. But this is all part of counter-insurgency, and they know it.

[Ottavio - American Interests]

General Petraeus is a military professional; we need to listen to what he said, as there is no doubting his honesty, integrity, and determination to do what is best for the armed services and U.S. foreign objectives in Iraq. Antiwar forces have nothing substantive to add to the debate, as expected they resort to allegations of treason, and simply vulgar profanity.

Both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are proud of their achievements to date and want to build on them. Their greatest challenge revolves around national reconciliation, something that's not going to be resolved in months rather years, something they are fully aware of, to this end I am glad that the Ambassador is part of the equation. A hasty exit is out of the question and would have enormous consequences for the entire region. We must stay the course at least until the job is done, a solution is designed.