A number of people have asked me whether the vote of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to oppose the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq will stop the surge.
Hello people, the resolution is non-binding. And besides, the Foreign Relations Committee doesn't even hold the purse strings.
More important though, the surge is already on.
I understand that Washington is so interesting to those inside the Beltway that one would think the Iraq war is actually being fought there.
I also that the media tends to report about the war on the ground by covering yet another indecipherable battle that tells us nothing of the progress of the overall conflict. But it does continue to baffle me why the mainstream media is by and large not reporting the actual "surge" as a front page story.
The surge deserves front page play in my view because it puts more Americans into harm's way against the will of the American people, and because it remains such a smoke screen and a fraud.
I've already written about the curious silence of most of the mainstream media when the first troopers of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived by helicopter from Kuwait more than 10 days ago landing at the gigantic American base at Taji, north of the capital, and then settling in at Forward Operating Bases Loyalty and Rustumiyah on the periphery of Sadr city, the Shi'a slums in northeast Baghdad.
Now SS writes me that the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina left for Iraq last Thursday. They arrived in Habbaniyah west of Baghdad for duty in Al Anbar province. Word is they may be moving elsewhere before the end of the month.
SS, who has a nephew in the battalion, comments that there was no real news coverage of either the unit's departure from North Carolina or their arrival in Iraq. There was only one tiny item in the Charlotte Observer and the local ABC affiliate aired a report on Monday.
The Defense Department has divulged that troops of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment are being extended in Anbar province for 60 to 90 days as part of the surge. The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, an additional augmented battalion with air support, is also being extended in Anbar for 45 days.
And ever so quietly, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit also left Lejeune in early January aboard ships to go to Iraq as part of the surge -- at least according to reports by the Associated Press and picked up hardly anywhere in the big media.
When the "surge" is all over next month, the Marines will have a total of eight battalions in Anbar province instead of the current six. Once the 60 to 90 day periods are over, another two battalions will be sent in early from the U.S. to relieve the two extended units.
Why no coverage of all of this in the big news media?
For one thing, it's not being trumpeted by the military. My guess is that the Army and Marine Corps are caught between announcing the deployments for the sake of families and as a matter of habit and being modest because they themselves have low expectations that the meager reinforcement will, by itself, turn the tide.
And, clearly, the big media have other things on their minds -- the Washington talk show circuit and the far future of the 2008 elections.
Meanwhile, this small news item in the Fayetteville Observer caught my attention:
The commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, visited with paratroopers of the 2nd Brigade at FOB Loyalty on Monday. Rodriguez, the Army announced, presented 28 medals, including a Bronze Star, to soldiers in a ceremony.
Just for getting there. Some guy got a Bronze Star just for deploying from Fort Bragg to Kuwait and onward to Baghdad. How meritorious and brave; no wonder the military is so modest, and so screwed up.
By William M. Arkin | January 25, 2007; 7:52 AM E| Category: Iraq
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