Over 250 people killed in the northern region of Iraq mostly comprised of Kurds, and hundreds wounded yesterday, undermines the Bush regimes' claim that the surge is working. If the goal of the surge was to slow violence and bloodshed in Iraq, than this is a big thorn in Bush's cheek. Only the neo-con establishment and gullible fraction of the American people will believe that the shifting tides of violence is proof that adding thousands of more American G.I.s eight months ago is working. It's human nature for people to believe what they want to believe, but when you have news of hundreds dead in a single day in Iraq it's hard to deny reality. I hope that the majority of Republicans come to their senses this fall and join the Democrats in demanding a phased withdrawal of troops from the war-torn middle eastern country. Iraq was a mistake on a dozen different levels, but continuing to have our military destroyed because we have a stubborn president just doesn't make sense. We should be protecting the homeland, and depleting our defense isn't a good strategy. I recommend removing 20,000 soldiers a month, which will force the leaders of Sunni, Shia and Kurd to work together and broker some deals. Like Colin Powell said, our presence there is like placing a lid on a boiling pot. If we remove the top - which removes steam - then the leaders of that country can start to turn down the temperature on their own.
