Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell on the fighting between the government and the Sadrist forces: “At this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge, in the sense that the Iraqi government has grown and increased in capability to the point where they now feel confident going after extremists—Shi’a extremists in a part of the country that had been—that they had not exerted great influence over. And so we, at this point, though still early, would view it as a sign of success.”

This would have more weight if the administration hadn’t been making the same argument repeatedly since before the Iraqi election: The increase in violence proves we’re winning. They’re fighting harder because they’re desperate. They’re doing everything they can to stop us because they know this is their last chance before our triumph becomes inevitable. Etcetera.

If violence declines, we’re winning.

If violence increases, we’re winning.

I think there’s a flaw in that logic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under War/military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.