Potemkin Village Showcase

Almost 4,000 lives, a half trillion dollars...and counting

And the grand prize is...one market in Baghdad:

Nearly every week, American generals and politicians visit Combat Outpost Gator, nestled behind a towering blast wall in the Dora market. They arrive in convoys of armored Humvees, sometimes accompanied by helicopter gunships, to see what U.S. commanders display as proof of the effectiveness of a seven-month-long security offensive, fueled by 30,000 U.S. reinforcements. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military leader in Iraq, frequently cites the market as a sign of progress.

"This is General Petraeus's baby," said Staff Sgt. Josh Campbell, 24, of Winfield, Kan., as he set out on a patrol near the market on a hot evening in mid-August...

Even U.S. soldiers assigned to protect Petraeus's showcase remain skeptical. "Personally, I think it's a false representation," Campbell said, referring to the portrayal of the Dora market as an emblem of the surge's success. "But what can I say? I'm just doing my job and don't ask questions."...

Still, the Dora market is a Potemkin village of sorts. The U.S. military hands out $2,500 grants to shop owners to open or improve their businesses. The military has fixed windows and doors and even helped rebuild shops that had burned down, soldiers and others said.

The article also points out what's apparent after four years plus: American soldiers, properly equipped and on the ground in numbers, are able to hold territory--even in Fallujah, as Charles Boustany gushed about this weekend. However, "control" in this context is illusory: we simply lack the number of troops necessary to secure the entirety of Iraq, as General Shinseki knew in 2003. It's also apparent that when American forces DO leave--and we will, sooner or later, at lesser or greater cost in lives and money--Iraq will NOT be by ANY definition a nation, or nations, inclined favorably towards the United States. Your tax dollars and the lives of your soldiers at work.

Alas, judging from Shrub's latest surprise visit to the region, he STILL thinks the whole operation is some sort of game...one that I think he knows has gone horribly awry, but one that he keeps playing because, well, he's a fucking psychopath who doesn't acknowlege the real consequences of his failure. To him, it's all about holding out until 2009, when blame can be shifted elsewhere.

Hard work.