Iraq War troop surge of 2007: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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==Troop Surge Timeline==

*January 2007: U.S. troop levels in Iraq are at 132,000. <ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_es.htm</ref>

January 2007:

*January 5, 2007: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Bush stating:

::“Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has already failed. Like many current and former military leaders, we believe that trying again would be a serious mistake.”

*January 10, 2007: President Bush officially announces the troop surge.

::“I’ve committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.”

:Also in his speech, President Bush defines the purpose of the surge.

::“Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.”<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html</ref>

*January 11, 2007: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) commented on the surge.

::”The most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”<ref>http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/11/hagel-escalation-vietnam/</ref>

*January 22, 2007: Senator John Warner (R-VA) introduces resolution opposing Bush’s Iraq plan.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012200999.html</ref>

*February 16, 2007: The House of Representatives passes a resolution opposing President Bush’s troop surge by a vote of 246-182, marking the first time in four years that Congress has voted decisively against Bush’s Iraq policy.<ref>http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll099.xml</ref>

*February 17, 2007: The government of Iraq and coalition forces announce operation Fardh Al Qanoon (Enforcing the Law), a major Baghdad security plan led by the Iraqi government.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2007/02/mil-070217-mnfi01.htm</ref> <ref>http://understandingwar.p2technology.com/operation/operation-fardh-al-qanoon</ref> It is the first of numerous operations that peak during the summer of 2007.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_military_operations_of_the_Iraq_War#Counterinsurgency_Operations_2007</ref> <ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_ongoing_mil_ops.htm</ref>

*March 2, 2007: The Pentagon states that 7,000 more troops will be sent to Iraq.

::“President Bush’s planned escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq will require as many as 28,500 troops, Pentagon officials told a Senate committee Thursday.”<ref>http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/gnssurge070302/</ref>

*March 20, 2007: U.S. Troop strength is 152,000 <ref>http://www.alternet.org/audits/48376/</ref>

*March 27, 2007: McCain tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

::“General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.”

:He later acknowledges:

::“There is no unarmored humvees. Obviously, that’s the case.” <ref>http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/08/mccain-60-min-misspoke/</ref>

*April 5, 2007: 12,000 more National Guard troops are to be sent to Iraq & Afghanistan.

::“Coming on the heels of a controversial ’surge’ of 21,000 U.S. troops that has stretched the Army thin, the Defense Department is preparing to send an additional 12,000 National Guard combat forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.”<ref>http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/05/12000-more-national-guard-troops-to-iraq/</ref>

*April U.S. troop levels in Iraq are at 150,000.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_es.htm</ref>

*April 19, 2007: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declares Iraq war “is lost.”<ref>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070419184534.ileoeb47&show_article=1<ref> He later says;

::“As long as we follow the President’s path in Iraq, the war is lost. But there is still a chance to change course — and we must change course.”

*April 26, 2007: Senate approves Iraq withdrawal bill.

::“The Senate on Thursday narrowly passed legislation ordering U.S. troops to begin coming home from Iraq by Oct. 1. The vote was 51-46. The House on Wednesday passed the same war spending bill, and President Bush next week is expected to receive, and swiftly reject, the legislation. The veto could fall on the fourth anniversary of the president’s Iraq ‘victory’ speech, which is Tuesday.”<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18332561/</ref>

*April 26, 2007: Gen. Petraeus warns, the war in Iraq is,

::“‘exceedingly complex and very tough’ … and said the U.S. effort might become more difficult before before it gets easier.”

:He further states that,

::“We are just getting started with the new effort.”<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18329437/</ref>

*May 25, 2007: Four months after the announcement of the troop surge, Congress passes H.R. 2206, and was signed into law by the President. Within the $120 billion war-spending bill are 18 benchmarks that grade Iraqi government progress toward stability.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801991.html</ref>

:The bill states that the purpose of these benchmarks is for congress to form the future strategy in regards to Iraq.

::“The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks…”<ref>http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:6:./temp/~c110ulfYSF:e1979:</ref>

:The bill contains no wording on the conditions for withdrawal or as the success criteria for the surge.<ref>http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/L17HR2206TroopReadinessVeteransKatrinaIraqApprop052407DKMS_2_.pdf</ref>

*June 3, 2007: “The intensity of combat and the greater lethality of attacks on U.S. troops is underscored by the lower ratio of wounded to killed for May, which fell to about 4.8 to 1 — compared with an average of 8 to 1 in the Iraq conflict, according Pentagon data. ‘The closer you get to a stand-up fight, the closer you’re going to get to that 3-to-1 ratio’ that typified 2oth-century U.S. warfare, said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense information Web site.”<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201294.html?hpid=topnews</ref>

*June 4, 2007: Former U.S. Commander In Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez states:

::“I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat,”<ref>http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA052507.01A.Sanchez.3538bac.html</ref>

*June 11, 2007: U.S. forces arming Sunni tribes. American commanders are turning to a strategy...

::“that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.” Critics say the plan “could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war.”<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?ex=1339214400&en=7c69d70a25a4828e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss</ref>

*June 13, 2007: Top US congressional Democrats tell President George W. Bush that his Iraq troop "surge" policy was a failure.<ref>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070613203802.7yla5iav&show_article=1</ref>

*June 15, 2007: The troop surge operations begin. The U.S. military reports that 28,000 troops required for the surge have arrived in Iraq and that the surge operations can now commence.

::"All the forces initially identified as part of the surge have completed their strategic movements into theatre in Iraq,"<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6757329.stm</ref> <ref>http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BUL522174.htm</ref>

*July 15, 2007: A White House interim report assessed that 7 of the 18 Iraqi benchmarks have yet to be satisfactorily met, with one additional benchmark meeting with mixed success. The remaining ten benchmarks were assessed as being satisfactorily met.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6294694.stm</ref>

:A report by the GAO, a congressional research arm states that Iraq has not satisfied 11 of the 18 benchmarks, and an additional three have mixed results.<ref>http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071220t.pdf</ref>

*August 13, 2007: Statements by British lawmakers indicate England's lack of confidence in the surge.

:The Labour-led foreign affairs committee said boosting American forces on the streets of Baghdad even further would not bring an end to the violence, and was unlikely to succeed.<ref>http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/13/2003251.htm</ref> <ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=474944&in_page_id=1811</ref>

*September 2007: The U.S. troop surge hits peak strength at 168,000. This number will be maintained until November 2007 when troops will begin drawdown.<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_es.htm</ref>

*November 1, 2007: The BBC reports that the downward tend appears to confirm the Pentagon claims that its "surge" strategy is working.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2202900,00.html</ref>

*November 1, 2007: The independent think-tank the Brookings Institution records a downward trend in US non-combat fatalities: 42 in September, 75 in August, 69 in July, 92 in June and 121 in May. <ref>http://www.iiss.org/whats-new/iiss-in-the-press/press-coverage-2007/november-2007/us-troop-fatalities-plunge-following-surge</ref>

*November 24, 2007: The troop surge in Iraq was effectively declared over when officials announced that 5,000 soldiers will this week begin pulling out in response to declining violence. <ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2216841,00.html</ref>

*November 24, 2007: Iraqi Fardh Al Qanoon Enforcing the Law), a major Baghdad security plan led by the Iraqi government ends.<ref>http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=30773&sectionid=351020201</ref>

*November 28, 2007: Presidential candidate Joe Biden (D-DE) states his view on the troop surge:

::“This whole notion that the surge is working is fantasy."<ref>http://blogs.lasvegassun.com/politics/joe-biden/issues/iraq/</ref> <ref>http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/biden_iraq_surge_success_a_fan.html</ref>

*November 30, 2007: U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), an outspoken congressional critic of the Iraq war said he saw signs of significant military progress during a brief trip to the Middle East last week.

::"I think the 'surge' is working." <ref>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07334/837990-84.stm</ref>

==Results of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007==