Are things still getting better?
Uh, no.
[quote=“NYT: US to Review Baghdad Plan”][b]The American military’s stepped-up campaign to staunch unrelenting bloodshed in the capital under an ambitious new security plan that was unveiled in August has failed to reduce the violence, a military spokesman said Thursday.
Instead, attacks have actually jumped more than 20 percent over the first three weeks of the holy month of Ramadan, compared to the previous three weeks, said Gen. William Caldwell, the military’s chief spokesman in Iraq.[/b]
In an unusually gloomy assessment, General Caldwell called the spike in attacks “disheartening” and added that the American military was “working closely with the government of Iraq to determine how to best refocus our efforts.”
[b]It is unclear, however, what other options might be available to American military commanders if their current efforts fail. Over the past year, American forces had begun withdrawing from large areas of the capital, encouraging Iraqi Army and police forces to take the lead. That policy, however, was followed by escalating levels of sectarian attacks, particularly after the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samara in February.
In August, military commanders reversed course and returned troops in force to the neighborhoods they had once patrolled. Officials at the time made clear the urgency of the task, saying that whatever unfolded in Baghdad could very well determine the outcome of the war.[/b]
American troops, along with their Iraqi counterparts, began conducting concentrated neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweeps of troubled areas, searching homes, setting up checkpoints and systematically clearing the areas of insurgents and militants participating in sectarian death squads.
Those sweeps have made a difference in some areas, General Caldwell said, but ultimately have not met military commanders’ “overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence.”
In a worrisome development, General Caldwell revealed Thursday that American troops had to return last week to Dora, a troubled southern Baghdad neighborhood that had been a showcase of the new security plan and was one of the first areas to be cleared.[/quote]
The Green Zone… er… Iraqi government recently said that the violence could be brought under control in a couple of months if Iran and Syria were brought in. Is that in the works? Somehow, I doubt it. Unless, that is, such is James Baker’s next task… he’s piped up about the necessity of talking to everyone, including the Syrians. If that’s not in the works, what’s next? Soft power been talked up, but I don’t think the troops on the ground, nor the people, are prepared, at this point, to win over hearts and minds. So, no input from the neighbours, no making nice with the locals, what’s Plan D (F/G/H, or whatever it is)?