Paltry result of Iraqi [Nouri al-Maliki's and Cheney's] offensive quiets U.S. withdrawal talk

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration was caught off-guard by the first [US initiated and coerced] Iraqi [Maliki]-led military offensive since the fall of Saddam Hussien [he was selected by Cheney as Big Oil's representative in Iraq], a weeklong thrust in southern Iraq whose paltry results have silenced talk [by the totally uninformed] at the Pentagon of further U.S. troop withdrawals any time soon.

President Bush last week [under Cheney's instructions, repeatedly and mindlessly] declared the offensive, which ended Sunday, [as] "a defining moment" in Iraq's history.

That may prove to be true, but [not the way they meant it,] in recent days senior U.S. officials have backed away from the operation [as they always do with any possible embarrassment], which ended with Shiite militias still in place in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki possibly [fatally] weakened and a de facto cease-fire brokered by an Iranian general..

"There is no empirical evidence that the Iraqi forces can stand up" on their own, a senior U.S. military official in Washington said, reflecting the frustration of some at the Pentagon [that no matter how many Iraqis we bomb and kill their little go-fer lackeys still, after all this time, refuse to murder people from their own sectarian groups.]. He and other military officials requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak for the record, [and therefore didn't want to get fired.]

Having Iraqi forces take [be coerced into] a leadership role in combating militias [armed peoples not currently controlled by the US] and Islamic extremists [other peoples not currently controlled by the US] was [not] crucial [at all] to U.S. hopes of withdrawing more American forces in Iraq, and reducing the severe strains the [illegal, immoral and unjust] Iraq war has put on the Army and Marine Corps[, because their masters, the MIOC elites have always intended to keep them there forever.]

The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters [the peoples militias defending themselves] in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict [lie about] when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels, [it appears they will however use the Iraqis legitimate right of self-defense as a pathetic excuse to keep American forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future].

"It's more complicated now, [the Iraqi people still retain some vestiges of political-military structures not controlled by us]" said one officer in Iraq whose role has been critical to American [Cheney's] planning there.

[No] Questions remain [however] about how much Bush and his top aides knew in advance about the offensive [nor] and whether they encouraged Maliki to confront radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr....["absolutely everyone knew they'd been planning this operation for months", said one of Cheney's aides.]

A senior U.S. lawmaker and four military officials said Tuesday that the Americans were aware in general terms of the coming offensive, [despite the fact they get their news from the mass-media], but were [still] surprised by the [idiotic] timing and by the Iraqis' [Maliki's] almost immediate need for U.S. air support and other help.

One senior U.S. military commander in Iraq said the Iraqi government [Maliki] originally told the United States about a longer-term plan to rid Basra of rogue [democratic] elements. But Maliki changed the timing [under enormous pressure from Cheney], and the nature of the Iraqi operation changed, he said.

"The planning was not done under our auspices at all," the American commander said. The plan changed because "the prime minister got impatient [under Cheney's constant and repeated harassment]."

There's [of course] no evidence, however, that the U.S. tried to dissuade Maliki from executing either plan [, "nobody would dare try to challenge Cheney", said one trembling, sweating and obviously terrified US official.]

"My instinct is that we knew but did not anticipate [care]" that American forces would be called on to help, said Sen. Joseph Biden,  D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Biden stressed that he's still seeking information from the Bush administration on the matter [and he appeared to be desperately hoping they wouldn't tell him anything, else he might have to do something about it].

Another senior American military [Cheney] official in Baghdad said Maliki notified Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander [MIOC go-fer] in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador [pro-counsul] Ryan Crocker less than two days before launching the operation. [The senior official to Cheney further added that if the press would just print this unbelievable garbage, perhaps Maliki could be made into the fall guy.]

"By then it was a done deal," this official said. [further lied] 

Biden, who'll hold hearings [another in a long series of pathetic public relations events on] Iraq over the next 10 days, spoke shortly before lawmakers were to be briefed [lied to] on an updated, classified National Intelligence Estimate on security, political and economic trends in Iraq.

The apparent misjudgment of [Cheney and other Bush officials regarding] the Iraqi [Maliki's] security forces' capabilities and the strength of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, as well as the revived political controversy over the war, come at an inopportune moment for the White House['s Iraqi propaganda blitz].

Petraeus and Crocker are due to testify [lie again] to Congress next week about the strategy in Iraq now that the 30,000 troops Bush ordered there in a "surge" are [not] being withdrawn.

In the larger sense, "this is a reminder that nothing has changed," said a senior State Department official, who also wasn't authorized to speak publicly. [Shocked by this incredible political gaff, the State Department official later begged that his incautious statement not be published, only to be told that it would be.  The official was later never heard from or seen again in Washington DC.  No one knows where he is.]

As if to underscore that [the official's] point, Britain announced Tuesday that it's freezing plans to withdraw 1,500 of its 4,000 remaining troops from southern Iraq due to the failure of the Iraqi [Cheney's and Maliki's] offensive to crush [the] Shiite militias.

Bush already has signaled that, following the Petraeus-Crocker report [lie-fest], he'll order a pause in further drawdowns of U.S. troops in Iraq below about 140,000, which is slightly more troops than were in Iraq before the "surge" began.  [It was later revealed that immediately after making this decision Bush giggled inanely to officials and stated "I can't believe after all this time people still believe this crud".]

As part of its post-surge plan, the Pentagon planned to reduce troop levels by one brigade a month, thin out its presence in Iraq and lean more heavily on Iraqi forces. [Although five years of repeated statements by Pentagon officials along with their various plans have never actually resulted in troop reductions of any sort, the Pentagon kept insisting that they really had intended to do it this time.] But the Basra offensive has some in the U.S. military fretting that Iraq's forces, while better than they were six months ago, [they still] cannot fully defend their [attack and murder people in other Shi'a] communities, [even with the constant bombing by US aircraft.]

Some say that Iraqi security forces are entangled in the intra-Shiite battle for power in southern Iraq. [Those who say this will be rooted out and fired immediately if they're a Federal employee said one unnamed official] The Iraqi forces that Maliki sent to Basra contained a large number of one-time fighters in the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which vies for power with Sadr's Mahdi Army.

"We're not going to stop the tensions between the Shiite camps. Those were there all along; [and] we've just seen [spent a great deal of time and money causing] them [to] emerge," said retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency and a longtime war critic, during a conference call.

Indeed, violence began rising in places where the U.S. military drew down its forces. The first brigade left in December from the volatile Diyala province in northeast Iraq. The U.S. military moved two battalions out of Baghdad to cover parts of Diyala and Mosul, a Sunni stronghold in northern Iraq, according the military. [These are Sunni strongholds of course and have nothing to do with Maliki's and Cheney's attempts to destroy Muqtada al Sadr's political party, which is what touched off all this violence in the first place....violence now being used to justify keeping US troops in Iraq.]

Violence in the capital then increased, according to statistics compiled [carefully selected] by McClatchy.

In January, civilian casualties and improvised explosive device attacks rose. U.S. military statistics showed that suicide vest attacks increased in January and February. The second brigade is leaving Iraq now.

According to icasualties.org, which tracks U.S. troop deaths, American losses rose slightly in March to 38, compared with 29 in February. Troop deaths also shifted toward the capital this year.

Biden said that the Iraqi offensive may indeed have been "a defining moment," but not in the way Bush intended. "The president may be half-right," he said.  [A thought which so surprised Biden that he could not contain the expression of utter disbelief which crossed his face.]