Contrary to the popular belief that John McCain's vaunted "Surge" reduced violence in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, Reuters is now reporting on a study published in the journal "Environment and Planning A" which suggests that ETHNIC CLEANSING rather than the surge was responsible for reduced violence in Iraq.
The flip has more......
Gots some blockquotes for ya! And please give the article and it's writer, Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor at Reuters some love. Yahoo has it as well.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.
"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.
The extent to which the troop build-up helped halt Iraq's slide into sectarian civil war has been debated, particularly in the United States, with supporters of the surge saying it was the main contributing factor, and others arguing it was simply one of a number of factors.
"Our findings suggest that the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved," Agnew's team wrote in their report.
So what now McCain - were you against ETHNIC CLEANSING before you were for it?
Just wanted to add (for Billo the Clown) that the diary title and question to McCain are examples of sarcasm.
Relevant links to article:
http://www.reuters.com/...
http://news.yahoo.com/...