Old Problems Plague New Security Plan For Iraq

Three months after additional U.S. troops began pouring into Baghdad in the most recent effort to stanch violence in Iraq's capital, military observers are fretting that the same problems that torpedoed last summer's Baghdad security plan are cropping up again.

Violence is on the rise, Iraqi troops aren't showing up to secure neighborhoods, U.S. troops are having to revisit neighborhoods they'd already cleared, and Iraq's politicians haven't met any of their benchmarks.

I am not sure why this is a surprise. They have tried this type of surge before with the same lack of results. Iraq is in a civil war and nothing we can do will change that. The time to quell the violence was after the fall of Saddam but we had insufficient troops to accomplish that goal.

I believe we are in Iraq for one reason only, and that is oil. With the largest embassy in the world being built in Iraq and the recent discussion of a presence in Iraq for years to come, does anyone really believe it was for any other reason?