Reid Debunks McCain-Bush Notion Of Improving Baghdad

With the White House chorus of "give surge a chance" growing louder every day in Washington, it's important that people understand what conditions are actually like in Iraq as the battle heats up over the coming Bush veto of the mandate to bring the troops home.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) gave an outstanding speech on the Senate floor Wednesday and just one small part of it focused on the reality that everyone in Baghdad sees, but that Republicans just ignore.

Here's Reid:

"With yesterday's vote, the Senate finally acknowledged the reality in Iraq: The President's policy is not working. It is time to change course. This bipartisan position was backed up in the newspapers around the country today. USA Today and the Associated Press have an article today detailing how the surge is not working. Baghdad, in some instances, may be quieter, but according to the news outlets I have just mentioned, insurgents have taken their attacks elsewhere. I quote:

"Nationwide, the number of deaths from car bombs has decreased slightly since the Baghdad Security Operation began. However, the death toll from car bombs has more than doubled in areas outside the capital compared to the previous 6-week period.

"Violence has not stopped in Iraq. It has gotten worse. Earlier today, Shiite militants, including local police, went on a violent rampage. When it ended 2 hours later, we do not know how many Sunnis have been killed, but at least 60. The victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, most of them killed with a shot to the back of the head.

"These reports fly in the face of what we heard in the Senate yesterday from some quarters, and we hear from President Bush that things are better in Iraq. The idea that the surge is working or that it needs more time is a fantasy. What we see today in Iraq, months into the surge, is more of the same--the same violence, the same chaos, the same loss of life we have seen over the last 4-plus years, with 3,200 dead Americans and $500 billion spent. It is long past time to change course in Iraq."

Thanks to Senator Reid for saying this kind of thing on the Senate floor every single day. When you have the president and most Congressional Republicans living in Fantasyland, you damn sure won’t hear it from them.