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Surge movie

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Monday premiered a film to showcase the success of President George W. Bush’s “surge” of troops in Iraq at the National Press Club.

The film, which can be seen at www.understandingthesurge.org, explains the events that fueled violence in Iraq in 2006, such as the Samarra mosque bombings. The bombings appeared to be random to many Americans, but when studied by military experts had very specific intentions; namely, to terrorize the Shi’ites.

The institute’s specialists argue that American troops in Iraq were able carry out the necessary counterinsurgency strategy designed by Gen. David H. Petraeus because of the surge.

“We in Washington have trouble forming the sentence ‘the surge worked,’ and that is unfortunate,” said ISW President Kimberly Kagan.

The movie features extensive interviews with Gen. Petraeus as well as former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker about how U.S. troops built combat outposts in violent neighborhoods and gained the trust of the Iraqis to quell the violence.

U.S. Army Col. David Sutherland - who led the 3rd Brigade Combat Team “Greywolf,” 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Diyala province - spoke at Monday’s event at the press club to give his perspective on how necessary it was for American forces to assist the Iraqis.

He recalled holding a 5-year-old girl who was shot in the face by al Qaeda in Iraq, or AQI as it is called by the military, because her father was a Shi’ite policeman.

“At that point, we had to become very aggressive,” he said.

And that was just one gory incident. The colonel also told film viewers, which included ISW Board Member Liz Cheney, about a torture chamber that he discovered where arms, legs, torsos and heads of men, women and children were stacked in different corners of the room.

“They have no capacity for mercy,” he said.

Hate protest

The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church took its inflammatory protests to Washington on Monday, even making a stop at the school that Sasha and Malia Obama attend.

The group, which holds anti-gay rallies across the country, was upset with the school’s support of gay rights.

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