reality-based educator

I guess this continued carnage in Iraq means we're winning the war:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb and mortar attacks killed at least 31 people in and near Baghdad on Saturday in violence that showed no sign of easing despite a security crackdown against al Qaeda in the Iraqi capital.

The violence followed a vow by al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq to avenge the death of his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7.

In the deadliest attack, a car bomb targeting Iraqi army and police killed 11 people.

Reuters Television footage showed the blackened remains of at least six burnt-out cars. A charred body was taken on a stretcher to an ambulance. A man with blood on his face stood nearby looking stunned and smoking a cigarette.

U.S. military helicopters and divers searched for two U.S. soldiers missing after an attack on Friday in which one American soldier was killed in the insurgent bastion of Yusufiya in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad.

...

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under pressure to rein in violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, launched a security sweep on Wednesday with 50,000 Iraqi troops backed by 7,000 U.S. troops to pile pressure on al Qaeda.

But the operation, mounted one day after President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to bolster Maliki's month-old government, has failed to stop attacks.

In more violence of the type carried out by al Qaeda, a bomb killed six people and wounded 11 in a crowded market in central Baghdad and mortar rounds killed two people and wounded 14 in another market in the Shi'ite district of Kadhimiya.

Attacks on crowded markets are a common tactic used by al Qaeda as part of what U.S. officials say is a campaign to ignite a sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority.

In the town of Mahmudiya just south of the capital, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint killed seven people.

Four days into the crackdown, the Interior Ministry has not yet announced any arrests or other results.

As the wounded from Saturday's blasts were being treated, state television broadcast footage of Iraqi soldiers marching to the sound of martial music, part of a government campaign to bolster the image of its security forces.

I'm absolutely disgusted by the cynicism of the administration and the GOP leadership on the war. While the violence in Iraq continues unabated, while the U.S. military remains stretched to the breaking point because there are not enough troops to handle the missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, while the war continues to add billions of dollars of debt to the nation, while thousands of innocent Iraqis die in this mess, the administration and the GOP leadership pull a bullshit "Stay the Course" resolution in the House of Representatives meant to show the opponents to the war up as cowards and defeatists.

Yet the real defeatists are the cynical, manipulative lying weasles who continue to parrot the line "Progress is being made in Iraq" in the aftermath of the Zarqawi killing. Progress isn't being made in Iraq. Despite the unprecedented security measures taken by the al-Mailiki government, the carnage continues unabated. The country is pulling apart at the seams along sectarian lines, people continue to be murdered because of their religion or ethnicty, al Qaeda doesn't seem to have been hurt much by the Zarqawi killing and the homegrown insurgency is rolling along.

Just look at the pictures and the news and see for yourself.

Instead of holding bullshit p.r. stunts in the House where they talk tough and say things like "Retreat is not an option," the GOP leadership would be better served by coming up with a real plan to win this war that includes adding more American troops (even if that means a draft) and more security and reconstruction money (even if that means raising taxes.)

But the GOP leadership won't do that. The administration won't do that. They would rather point to Democrats and other war opponents and say "They're defeatists." But of course the real defeatists are the "stay the coursers" who haven't wanted to change any part of the administration's failed war policy. And that includes all those tough-talking Republicans in the House and Senate last week who continue to support a war without providing the real means necessary to win it.

UPDATE: Here's an article from tomorrow's Washington Post about how the world's most powerful military failed to provide body armor for troops in Iraq that might have saved thousands of lives. I wonder if the House will hold a debate on why Rummy didn't provide proper body and vehicle armor for American troops in Iraq?