This argument takes a smidgen of truth in population movement within Iraq to argue that reduced civilian deaths in Baghdad come from ethnic cleansing and not from a successful surge operation. That is, with ethnically pure neighborhoods, the Shia and Sunni death squads and suicide bombers no longer have targets. Petraeus responds to this charge:
As the box in the bottom left of this chart shows, the number of deaths due to ethno-sectarian violence has fallen since we testified last September. A big factor has been the reduction of that violence in Baghdad. Some of this decrease is, to be sure, due to sectarian hardening of certain Baghdad neighborhoods. However, that is only a partial explanation, as numerous mixed neighborhoods still exist.
This anti-war side argument is nonsense, and I have to ask those who believe it, just how lazy are the religious fanatics you talk about? Are the Iraqis really that unwilling to ride a couple blocks to kill hated religious enemies?
Because we know the real haters will travel much farther, as General Petraeus also testified:
Al Qaeda's senior leaders, who still view Iraq as the central front in their global strategy, send funding, direction and foreign fighters to Iraq.
Actions by neighboring states compound Iraq's challenges. Syria has taken some steps to reduce the flow of foreign fighters through its territory, but not enough to shut down the key network that supports AQI. And Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way through its lethal support to the special groups.
I mean, foreigners from across the Arab world and Iran are making the great effort to sneak into Iraq to kill people, yet the world class haters of Baghdad won't commute five minutes to slit a throat or self-detonate in a pet market? I mean, real haters flew all the way to the United States from whatever rock they spawned from to carry out the 9/11 attacks. That's real hate. Yet Iraqis are couch-bound? Even the car bombers who by definition have to travel to work? Not even mortar attacks? Shoot, they'd just have to set up in their back yard, head out at half time during the soccer match on TV, and drop a couple rounds. They'd be back inside in no time.
But casualties are undeniably way down from the peak. Is our anti-war side really saying that the limited movement of people within Baghdad has caused the decline in casualties? It's almost as if it really isn't a civil war inside Iraq, but a war between Sunni Arab and Shia Persian fanatics sent into Iraq to fight their war there and fan the flames of hatred that don't naturally burn quite so brightly.
And our Left insists on calling themselves the "reality-based" community?
