The Iraq war has been pushed to the back burner recently. Presumptions about the success of the 'surge' have helped sideline the war as a major media story and even a predominant election issue.

In a recent article on the outcome of Bush's Iraq 'surge,' Susan Webb of the People's World reports that the positive picture presented in the US media and by the Bush administration is based on shaky realities.

According to Webb's reporting, one main factor for the recent developments in Iraq has been a number of deals between US military forces and Sunni groups formerly hostile to the US presence.

According to several media accounts, US military commanders have hired up to 100,000 Sunni Iraqis, promised to pay them $300 per month, and organized them into groups called Awakening Councils or Concerned Local Citizens.

Many of these individuals are former insurgents, former supporters of Saddam Hussein, and Sunnis who are deeply afraid of Shi'ite control of their country.


According to Webb, 'many Iraqis are suspicious of the motives of some of these groups, and there is growing concern that that the US is in effect setting them up as private militias outside government control.'

These under-reported facts have caused people in the US military community to express grave concerns about the apparent success of the 'surge.'

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a retired Army General and former Clinton administration appointee, recently told National Public Radio, 'The least important aspect of the so-called change in strategy was the surge.'

McCaffrey's assessment contrasts sharply with the optimistic report delivered to Congress by the Bush administration last September. Speaking for the White House, Iraq Commander Gen. David Petraeus claimed that reduced violence resulted from increased troop numbers.

Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor also told NPR that until the payments were made to Sunni groups, 'the surge was simply providing more targets for the insurgents to shoot at' and warned that the result will be to create a parallel military force in Iraq that is made up almost entirely of Sunni Muslims.

And while Sunni groups have accepted the payments, arms, and organization for their own purposes, Shi'ite political leaders aren't viewing these developments without concern.

Macgregor added that rather than generating the conditions for a political reconciliation this situation could result in entrenched sectarian conflict. Indeed, the 'surge' tactics are likely blocking the very reconciliation they were designed to promote.

Macgregor says, 'We have facilitated, whether on purpose or inadvertently, the division of the country. We are capitalizing on that now, and we are creating new militias out of Sunni insurgents. We're calling them concerned citizens and guardians. These people are not our friends, they do not like us, they do not want us in the country. Their goal is unchanged.'

Additionally, the occupation has enforced a segregation of the major religious sects. Salam Ali, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Communist Party, reports Webb, notes that the forced segregation of different parts of the country and 'violent ethnic cleansing' as created 'a kind of negative stability, with several million Iraqis displaced from their homes.'

Four of the Democratic presidential candidates in a recent ABC debate in New Hampshire also expressed skepticism about the success of the 'surge,' though none of them addressed the behind-the-scenes details.

Mainly they criticized the Iraqi government for failing to build political reconciliation and overcome sectarian conflict. But they each agreed that the occupation of Iraq has to come to an end.

Sen. Hillary Clinton expressed optimism about the success of the US military but warned 'there has not been a willingness on the part of the Iraqi government to do what the surge was intended to do to push them to begin to make the tough decisions.'

Gov. Bill Richardson agreed, saying 'The policy is a massive failure.' Richardson added that political solutions have not been reached and sacrificing US soldiers is too high a price for the waiting game.

Richardson linked the failure of the policy and the cost in lives in treasure to US domestic policy. 'Until we end this war,' he concluded, 'we cannot talk about the issues that need to be dealt with here: universal health care, improving schools, bringing people together.'

Sen. Barack Obama asserted, 'The bar of success has become so low that we have lost perspective on what should be our long-term national interest.' Despite the 'surge' and reduction in violence, nothing has improved. 'We are back where we started two years ago,' he said.

John Edwards added that redeployment out of Iraq is the best choice. He cited reduced violence in areas British troops have left from in the South as evidence that withdrawal need not lead to renewed conflict.