The Iraq War Ends

9/24/13

As The Iraq War Ends, Reassessing The U.S. Surge : NPR

As The Iraq War Ends, Reassessing The U.S. Surge

by TOM BOWMAN December 16, 2011 10:14 AM

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www.npr.org/2011/12/16/143832121/as-the-iraq-war-ends-reassessing-the-u-s-surge?sc=ipad&f=1001

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9/24/13

As The Iraq War Ends, Reassessing The U.S. Surge : NPR

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Here's the conventional wisdom about the U.S. troop surge in Iraq: By 2006, Iraq was in chaos. Many Americans called for the U.S. to get out. Instead, President Bush sent in 30,000 additional troops. By the end of 2007, Iraq started to stabilize, and the move took on an almost mythic status. In 2008, for example, Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke at the Republican National Convention about the U.S. presence in Iraq, saying that, "by every measure, the surge of troops into Iraq has worked." And in a 2007 speech to Congress on the situation in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus said, "The military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met." But Doug Ollivant, who was an Army planning officer in Baghdad, took part in putting the surge troops on the street. And he disagrees with the idea that the surge fixed things. "The surge really didn't work, per se," Ollivant says. Ollivant is now with a Washington think tank, the New America Foundation. He says what happened had less to do with the Americans and more to do with deep political and social forces inside Iraq. "I think it was the Iraqis who essentially figured out their problems [and] used the Americans who were there to help them formulate that solution," he says. "Fundamentally, it was the Iraqis trying to find a solution, and they did."

Leaving Iraq Tim eline: The U.S. And The

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Sunnis Allied With The U.S.

9/24/13

As The Iraq War Ends, Reassessing The U.S. Surge : NPR

War In Iraq...