US Marines deny losing Iraq's biggest province (Anbar)

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GRA243935.htm

US Marines deny losing Iraq's biggest province

BAGHDAD, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The commander of the U.S. Marine force in Iraq on Tuesday denied his troops had lost control of the vast province they patrol, after newspapers reported his intelligence chief had written a bleak report.

...

But Major General Richard Zilmer, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, said the press reports "fail to accurately capture the entirety and complexity" of the situation in Anbar.

"The classified assessment, which has been referred to in these reports, was intended to focus on the causes of the insurgency. It was not intended to address the positive effects Coalition and Iraqi forces have achieved on the security environment over the past years," he said in a statement.

"In areas where the presence of Iraqi Security Forces is combined with an effective local civil government, we have seen progress made. Not just in the area of security, but in economic development and the establishment of social order and public services," he said.

[rodeodance]

1. nyt: Grim Outlook Seen in West Iraq Without More Troops and Aid

Grim Outlook Seen in West Iraq Without More Troops and Aid


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/world/middleeast/12an...

September 12, 2006
Grim Outlook Seen in West Iraq Without More Troops and Aid
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — The political and security situation in western Iraq is grim and will continue to deteriorate unless the region receives a major infusion of aid and a division is sent to reinforce the American troops operating there, according to the senior Marine intelligence officer in Iraq.

The assessment, prepared last month by Col. Peter Devlin at the Marine headquarters in Anbar Province, has been sent to senior military officials in Iraq and at the Pentagon.

While the American military is focused on trying to secure Baghdad and prevent the sectarian strife there from escalating into a civil war, the assessment points to the difficulties in Anbar, a vast Sunni-dominated area of western Iraq where the insurgency is particularly strong. The province includes such restive towns as Ramadi, Haditha and Hit.

...............

Elements of the assessment were reported Monday in The Washington Post. Military officials familiar with the document disclosed additional material and provided several quotations from the assessment...........

[gratuitous]

2. Shorter Zilmer: Too much truth leaked out

"All is well! Remain calm!"

[cliss]

3. Notice the back-pedaling,

the correcting of statements? You can almost feel the sweat pouring down their foreheads as they say this.

"The press fails to capture the entirety"
"Not intended to address the positive effects"
"security environment"
"progress made"
"the establishment of social order & public services"

You can just feel the panic, the desperation to keep Rumsfailed & the Pentagon happy, if they DARE say one word that things are not absolutely perfect, they are all in RumsWorld.

[damntexdem]

4. That's exactly correct: the marines didn't lose it.

After all, how can one lose what one never had?

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. "After all, how can one lose what one never had?" - - Zactly

.
.
.

USA has NEVER had control or Iraq -

well, maybe for a brief moment when they tore down Saddam's statue in Baghdad.

But it's been all downhill from there.

They raced across the desert, not securing the cities they passed.

And the locals just armed themselves up, and have been killing the US military and their "coalition of the coerced" by the thousands ever since.

STUPID!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Saddam planned his defense well, he knew a direct defence would never work, having been emasculated with sanctions and the fly-overs.

Hussein is probably laughing his ass off watching the US military die by the thousands,

But I suspect he also grieves for the loss of his country, and his people that are being slaughtered in tens of thousands.

Saddam, even if sentenced to death, will not be the "loser" here when history is written.

It will be the US.

The US has lost "face" with the World.

And that will last a lot longer than the life of President #43.

Whomever is responsible for 911 has WON!

But the USA has facilitated that "win" by it's own inhumanity actions since 911.