- Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its 'last throes'?
- But the insurgency is in its last throes?
- But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?
- Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?
- What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?
- Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.
- Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?
Toehold's description has four A's, two C's, four D's, twenty-four E's, eight F's, four G's, five H's, ten I's, two L's, two M's, seventeen N's, seventeen O's, two P's, eight R's, twenty-nine S's, twenty-one T's, six U's, five V's, ten W's, two X's, four Y's, two Z's, and zero meaning.
Friday, June 17, 2005
I got your "last throes" right here.
The Cunning Realist points out an exchange between White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and ABC's Terry Moran. Long story short, Moran asks seven times about Vice President Cheney's claim that the Iraq insurgency is in its "last throes", and never gets a straight answer. Here are the questions he asked:
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1 comment:
One of the reasons (I believe) that there might be some credibility to the "last throes" concept is this:
Consider a rough parallel between Ireland and Iraq. Insurgents/terrorists in both locations, whose existence is certainly fueled by the presence of a foreign military.
The IRA, ULF, PIRA largely confine their strikes to British targets, with some strikes at sympathizers. The attacks are not indescriminate, and some care is taken to minimize Irish casualties. Irish terrorist groups also (generally) confine their activities to Ireland (though there have been acts in England as well). Why is this? Because the IRA et al. know that, if they kill or wound too many Irish people, the very people who support them, then that support will dry up - and without it, they are finished.
In Iraq, the primary targets remain US troops. But, we are seeing increasingly indesciminate attacks on the civilian population - not just among members of the new government (officials, police, etc), but among random civilians. As more of those occur, the civilians are
going to be less inclined to support the insurgency.
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