"A Defining Moment"

President Bush called the military push in Basra a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

Bush is right, of course...if you consider the following acts to be consistent with those of a "free" society:

- Lockdown/curfew for all citizens
- Rocket, aircraft, mortar, and small arms fire
- Interruption of daily services, such as food, water, electricity, etc.
- Unannounced searches and seizures/raids on private property
- Widespread killing

But it gets worse. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the US government has been engaged in paying off Iraqi militants in order to prevent further attacks on (what remains of) coalition forces. The article comes within a hair of admitting this when it refers to an "Iraqi government" policy of paying militants who willingly turn in weapons to security forces.

The dirty little secret about the "success" of the surge, as the above articles explain, is the fact that the US has been paying off militants for some time. Unsurprisingly, this fact has been spun by mainstream media who, in their unwavering loyalty to warfare, have linked the surge's success to General Petraeus. Regardless of how the act is spun, however, paying off insurgents is an act to be be interpreted as nothing short of desperation in a wholly unwinnable war.