Critics argue that the media are missing the “good news” about Iraq and the situation is improving. But a confidential U.S. analysis of Iraq’s stability challenges that feel-good assumption.
The U.S. embassy and military command report says that one-third of Iraq’s provinces face “serious” challenges to stability, and one province is “critical,” The New York Times reported. It warns about increasing sectarian and ethnic violence and the growing influence of Iranian-back Shiite groups.
In addition, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Saturday that there is “effectively a civil war under way now” in Iraq. Although U.S. officials continue to deny it, events in Iraq seem to support that assessment.
Yes, there is some good news in Iraq. But the overwhelming trend is not encouraging and justifies the media focus on the ongoing insurgency and insecurity.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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14 Comments
It is even worse than the 1/3 figure indicates. It appears that these are the largest and most populous provinces. All the major cities – Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, are in civil war.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
I think it’s out of our government’s hands at this point, the Iraqis and Iranians are going to do what they do and we can’t stop it. We got in over our heads with this whole misadventure.
Oh come on you guys . . .
Freedom is on the march.
Er… well… maybe not.
As Pollyanna says “Let Freedom Reign”.
The United States started this so=called “civil war” by paying jobless Sunni Iraqis to enlist in an army to fight and kill the so-called insurgency, turning “turncoat Iraqis” against their fellow citizens. As long as we can keep them fighting each other, we can keep whatever oil we manage to pump.
Even Iraqis understand billions of dollars and would quickly come to terms. What would it hurt to try. Halliburton?
We need to leave now, not need week, but right now.
If we left Iraq, they would probably comes to terms about oil revenues, but that wouldn’t include us, so we keep fanning the fire and calling it a “civil war.”
This should have been a cakewalk. With large enough troop deployment, we could have wrapped this “project” up in short order. But Bushco just had to try to do it on the cheap. So much for the “budget war” doctrine.
For what this will cost us, we could have bought Iraq.
XXX
No, No, No, He thought they’d be greeted with flowers.
Problem is, just like in VietNam, we cannot win without admitting the basic lie.
“The insurgency is in it’s last throes, if you will.” Dick Cheney
“It may be six days, six weeks . . . I doubt six months.” Donald Rumsfilled
“We don’t want the smoking gun, the final proof, to be a mushroom cloud over an American city.” George W. Bush
*****
The question at this point is not should we believe Bush and his handlers now . . . it’s why did we ever believe them about anything, ever?
Funny how nobody ever says we should talk about “all the good things” Saddam Hussein did when he was dictator.
I think gassing people overshadowed the “good things.”
Similarly, when we mow down civilians, torture women and children at Abu Ghraib, and raze Fallujah to the ground in meanspirited revenge, you can take all those “good things we’re doing” and cram them where the sun don’t shine.
Some of us never did.
And how quiet things have gotten from the right on Operation Endless Debacle . . .
Lefthook,
Look! Over there! It’s Cynthia McKinney! She’s such a racist!
From the inspired humor of The Onion–
RUMSFELD LAUDS IRAQIS FIGHTING WAR ON THEIR OWN
“Over the last month, the Iraqis have been fighting like you wouldn’t believe,” said Rumsfeld in a press conference at the Pentagon. “New Iraqis are joining the war every day—so many, in fact, that we don’t know where they all came from. It’s almost as if they came out of nowhere.”
“The scope and intensity of the combat in Iraq is such that I believe the presence of American forces in the country will no longer be required to help the Iraqi people plummet into meaningless violence,” Rumsfeld added.
Rumsfeld had harsh words for what he called the “cowardly and small-minded opposition” to American involvement in the region.
“Critics of this war who said we couldn’t inspire the Iraqi people to stand up and fight for themselves have been proven wrong,” Rumsfeld said, gesturing toward a map displaying conflict across the entire nation.
“There was the stubborn perception that after greeting us as liberators, the Iraqis had no fight in them, and couldn’t effectively defend their interests. Without our presence on their soil, I doubt most Iraqis would ever have lifted a finger or picked up a gun at all. Now, there’s almost no stopping them.”