USA Today: Iraqi insurgency growing more effective, deadly

[huckleberry]

This article in the sound-bite, short-attention span favorite American newspaper paints a surprisingly bleak, albeit realistic picture of the situation in Iraq.


By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In the nearly six months since President Bush declared major combat over in Iraq, guerrilla forces have grown bolder, more sophisticated and more deadly.

snip

The next few months, experts say, could be pivotal. Either U.S. forces will improve their anti-guerrilla tactics enough to regain the initiative, or the insurgents could score enough victories to turn Iraqis decisively against the occupation and weaken the American public's support for the war.

"This is a foot race that either side can win," says Bob Scales, a retired Army general and co-author of the book The Iraq War. He says the Iraqi guerrillas believe that America's "tolerance for pain is a lot lower than theirs."

snip

Paul Van Riper, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, is not confident things will get better anytime soon.

Van Riper says the U.S. forces need more infantry soldiers in Iraq and better intelligence.

But the Pentagon has dismissed the idea of more U.S. troops, in part because it's having trouble maintaining the force levels there now, but also because it insists that better intelligence, not the number of troops, is the real issue. Military analysts say, though, that training more intelligence officers, or recruiting more Arabic speakers, cannot be done quickly.


more at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-10-28-iraq-strategy-usat_x.htm

[alcuno]

1. Wasn't there a Pentagon group that gave us 3 months last July?

I haven't heard a word about it, but there was a group sent by the Pentagon who gave us about three months to turn things around. It seems that the clock is now being extended.

[NNN0LHI]

5. I remember the same 3 month window. We have not made that window

I don't know what the hurry is anyway. It don't look like we are going anywhere for a while. And the Iraqis certainly are not. I don't really see these windows, clocks and foot races meaning too much. I really don't. We will leave sooner or later. If the death rate in Iraq holds steady as it is right now my guess is Junior will pull out before next years election.

Don

[IndianaGreen]

2. Please take note of the veiled Iraqi women in this USA Today picture

Thank you America for removing a secular government and forcing women to wear the veil out of fear.

Afghan women are still wearing burqas. Some liberation!

[Scott Lee]

4. Fear?

Umm, many Muslim women wear the veil (chador) out of respect for their faith, because they want to. Surely you don't mean to suggest any one of them still wearing the chador is doing so out of fear.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Have you been reading the horrors that women have to endure in Iraq

It used to be that women could travel freely, and hold careers, under Baathist rule. No more! Afghan women had the same freedom, plus free college education, under Marxist Afghanistan. No more!

America has done more than any other nation to repress women's rights in the world, and at home!

[NNN0LHI]

7. Umm, even Christian women in Iraq are NOW being forced to wear the veil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2975198.stm

Iraqis fear rise of clerics

Muslim clerics in Iraq have been taking advantage of the political vacuum left by Saddam Hussein to try to impose their own strict version of Islam.

Liquor stores have been attacked and their owners threatened. Women have been told to wear the veil.

And it is not just Iraq's small Christian community that is now worried about its way of life. snip

But the loudest voice is that of Sheikh Mohammed Fartusi, a 31-year-old cleric based in eastern Baghdad who has declared war on alcohol sellers. snip

He also wants all women, even Christians, to wear the veil, though he says Muslims will be punished more than others.

"Women who don't wear the veil won't be served when they go shopping; taxis won't pick them up and they might have eggs and rotten tomatoes thrown at them," he says.

more

[Rollins]

3. If the Iraqia are seeing what we see.

It they get CNN on their satelite dishes and are able to see america twist in its uncertainty the insurgents are going to be heartened
and motivated to try and roll us out of Iraq.

Until now I thought the Neo-cons could pull anything off by just paying more money. Maybe the greedy money addicted Neo-Cons have met their match in this engagement. We will know shortly.

[bpilgrim]

8. the meek shall inherit the earth

or was that the WEAK. rings true when one considers that the only people who have a chance of defeating us are not the strongest but those who have NOTHING left to loose.

thought we had learned that lesson... i have a feeling we won't be the ones inheriting and earth in iraq nor afghanistan.

peace

[Emillereid]

9. When your enemy is most of the population of a country ,,,

it's just a matter of time before the light shines in from the end of the tunnel showing Americans the way home. Why Americans and the Brits still can't give the Iraqis enough humanity to realize that they too have national pride and will fight for control of their own country and destiny to throw these new (old) colonists out is beyond me. At bottom, they're racists who think the Iraqis should be grateful and passively accept the paternalism and superiority of the 'master race' who's come to bring them the secrets to the good life: privatization and zip codes. Ultimately the Americans and the Brits don't see Iraqi as grown ups who can be trusted to re-build (emphasis on RE) their own country -- something they've been doing for 5000 years.

We will be defeated -- but how many Iraqis and their friends will have to die?

[NNN0LHI]

10. You mean they won't like us after trying KFC chicken? We are done then n/t

[cliss]

11. True words written, Emellereid

when you have the majority of the population against you, what have you got? Nothing. Except a deadly waiting game. Waiting to see how long (and how many deaths) it will take for them to leave.

They have not figured this out yet. The reason:

they did not come in there on a mercy mission. They came to a) claim the oil so no one else could, b) gain control of the Middle East, country by country.

Benevolent gestures like building schools, infrastructures was never in their plans. That's why they're having such a hard time now.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. They couldn't have been that dumb

"They have not figured this out yet"

They knew what would happen all along, they don't care. The violence is in the cities. They don't care about the cities, the oil isn't in the cities, it is in the wastelands that have been protected nicely since day one. I'll bet there is a shoot to kill rule in force within miles of every drilling rig in Iraq.