From the July 12 speech by Bush
Our top priority is to help the Iraqis protect their population. So we have launched an offensive in and around Baghdad to go after extremists, to buy more time for Iraqi forces to develop, and to help normal life and civil society take root in communities and neighborhoods throughout the country. We're helping enhance the size, capabilities and effectiveness of the Iraqi security forces so the Iraqis can take over the defense of their own country. We're helping the Iraqis take back their neighborhoods from the extremists.
Of course, that was only last month. In that time, we have instead switched over to a course entirely devoted to pushing Al-Qaeda out of one area and into another. Training for the Iraqi military has been put on hold. "Normal life and civil society" has come to an abrupt halt in "successful" Diyala province. Only one-third of the Iraqi army force levels Bush "believed" would be ready to operate independently are actually there. We are allying ourselves with extremists, rather than "helping the Iraqis take back their neighborhoods from extremists".
In short, not one element of our "top priority" has worked, and it appears as if these elements are no longer our "top priority".
Neocons seem to have decided that Sunnis are the "bad guys", because you must have clearly-defined "bad guys" when you are in a war in which our very civilisation is at stake. If this is the new course, then neocons should be advised that the Shia are quite sympathetic to Iran. Are we really saying that after $500 billion spent, we are now working to establish a government in Iraq that is a firm ally of Iran?
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