The plan is to add one brigade of combat troops per month in Iraq over the next five month and to prolong the tours of formations already in Iraq. From a military point of view such a buildup is too slow and too small to achieve "securing the population" even in limited parts of Baghdad.
Being short on infantry troops the commanders on the ground will have to resort to those tools that are available to them but not to the insurgency, air-power and heavy artillery. Yesterday fighting, a mere 1,000 yards from the Green Zone, will repeat on a daily base and such will turn huge chunks of Baghdad into blood drained rubble.
The troops encountered strong resistance as the well-organized insurgents appeared determined to protect their turf or fight their way out, surprising U.S. soldiers who fought in the battle.
[…]
From rooftops and doorways, the gunmen fired AK-47 assault rifles and machine guns. Snipers also were targeting the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. U.S. soldiers started firing back with 50-caliber machine guns mounted on their Stryker armored vehicles. They used TOW missiles and Mark-19 grenade launchers. The F-15 fighter jets strafed rooftops with cannons, while the Apaches fired Hellfire missiles. But the insurgents kept fighting.
[…]
"We fired a TOW missile into a building," he said. "A few minutes later we started taking fire again from the building. Normally, that would have pretty much ended the whole engagement. They were fighting pretty persistently.""The terrain was in their favor," he added. "It is about as defensible a terrain as you can get."
A determined opposition could be able to stop Bush’s escalating. But the Democrats will only come up with some nonsense like an unbinding Congress resolution.
With the forces the U.S. is able and willing to commit, there can be no strategic relevant military achievement in Iraq. Meanwhile the needed political solution is further pushed down the road. This escalation will result in more death, more broken lives, more refugees and more profiteering by the war industry.
What it may achieve is the justification for the next surge to come. What it will certainly not achieve is anything positive for the people of the U.S. or Iraq.
