WALK IN BAGHDAD'S NEIGHBORHOODS IF SURGE IS WORKING

Republicans in Congress like to argue against a time table for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. They say the surge is working and Gen. David Petraeus is a mastermind who needs more time to "finish" the job.

But this argument goes against reality. Juan Cole recites the figures:

"The House of Representatives attempted to put strings on Bush's latest supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan, including a timetable for US military withdrawal. The bill they passed is expected to be defeated in the Senate and would in any case be vetoed by Bush. The Republican representatives are claiming things are just great now in Iraq (nearly 1000 persons a month are still being killed there even by the sketchy official statistics; as late as this September, the number of displaced persons increased by 16%; there is now active fighting on a new front, between Turkey and the Kurds holed up in northern Iraq; security is apparently collapsing in the port city of Basra; and Baghdad has in the past 10 months gone from 65% Shiite to 75% Shiite). Democrats warned against another 10 years of war at the cost of trillions of dollars."

There is no functioning Iraqi government outside the Green Zone. In neighborhoods in and around Baghdad, it is the law of the street and rule by war lords. Anything goes. As Juan Cole points out, there are still over 1,000 people killed per month. Iraqis are still streaming out of their neighborhoods. And Baghdad has witnessed ethnic cleansing on an enormous scale.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad writes in The Guardian on his personal observations and experiences in one Baghdad neighborhood.

Here is one vignette from this must-read account by Adul-Ahad:

"Ameriya is a closed zone, surrounded by high concrete walls. Only pedestrians are allowed through the two Iraqi army checkpoints out of the suburb. The "knights" are the only authority inside.

"When we arrived at the house where the alleged al-Qaida commander was hiding, Bakr was already in action. He was dragging a plump man into a car, grabbing his neck with one hand and his BKC machine gun with the other.

"The horrified man begged them not to take him. "By Allah, I didn't say Qaida is better than you, you are our brothers, just let me go!" A gunman kicked the man and pushed him into a car.

"The suspect's brother, still in his pyjamas, pleaded, and women in nightgowns stood in the street wailing and begging the gunmen to release him.

"The gunmen pointed their guns at the people and pushed them back. A young fighter carrying an old British sub-machine gun fired a burst into the air."

Read Adul-Ahad's report and then compare it with the Republicans and their vacuous pie-in-the-sky comments on the "surge is working" theme.