Two weeks = 1 Petraeus Unit (P.U.)In his opening statement to Congress today, Gen. Petraeus repeatedly cited progress by noting that some measures of violence
for the most recent two weeks were low. (7 Meg
pdf)
... the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met.
Though the improvements have been uneven across Iraq, the overall number of security incidents in Iraq has declined in 8 of the past 12 weeks, with the numbers of incidents in the last two weeks at the lowest levels seen since June 2006.
... as the chart before you reflects, the level of security incidents has decreased significantly since the start of the surge of offensive operations in mid-June, declining in 8 of the past 12 weeks, with the level of incidents in the past two weeks the lowest since June 2006 ...
That's pathetic. Why not choose an ultra-quiet 10 minutes, declare Victory, and leave?
If this is how we're going to measure things, then
any future two week period, should it be bloody, can be used to argue that the 'surge' is a failure.
NOTE: Petraeus actually cited a smaller unit of time, that of one week ("the number of attacks this past week the lowest since April 2006") but since he spoke more about the two week period, it's a more appropriate measure for a Petraeus Unit.
posted by Quiddity at 9/10/2007 10:57:00 AM
I have no sympathy. The Democratic Congress made it perfectly clear to Al Quada that there were specific criteria that had to be reached before they were to be rewarded with a U.S. withdrawal so they could assume control over Iraq.
Sure, the U.S. military has been systematically kicking their asses and slaughtering their jihadis to the point where all they seem able to do is luck out with a land mine or deliver an occasional car bomb to a completely unsuspecting marketplace. But now they can't even seem to do that.
AQ and the insurgents don't deserve a pullout. The defeatist Congress gave them their benchmarks and they failed to achieve them.
The last two weeks have proved it.
