LAT; Fear Casts a Shadow on 'Free City' Touted by Bush

[maddezmom]

TALL AFAR, Iraq — Last fall, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops descended on this ancient city close to the border with Syria. In the shadow of an Ottoman-era castle, they fought in narrow alleyways to clear the city of insurgents.

Last week, President Bush held up Tall Afar as an example of success in the country, calling it "a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq."

~snip~

Fear is palpable in the streets of Tall Afar. Residents complain that the city is increasingly divided as tribal violence sharpens the boundaries between Sunni and Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.

"Violence has increased, mortar attacks have increased, roadside bombs have increased," said Mohammed Taqi, a national legislator from the city who recently wrote to Iraq's interim president and prime minister, requesting that Tall Afar's administrative affairs be handled in Baghdad rather than the provincial capital, Mosul. The roads to that city — as well as two neighborhoods in Tall Afar — are controlled by insurgents, he said.

more:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tallafar26mar26,1,3576045.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[maddezmom]

1. Bush Highlights Tal Afar as Example of Progress in Iraq

and here is the propaganda on a government website:

:http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/Archive/2006/Mar/20-909739.html?chanlid=washfile

[Up2Late]

2. Exactly what I suspected...

The Bush Cabal was counting on the lack of current info coming from Iraq and Tal Afar to keep contradicting info from reaching us here in America.

[ClintonTyree]

3. We don't have the troops to keep the "ground we've won".

Just as in Viet Nam, we fight for a piece of land, a city, a hill then turn around and abandon it because the troops are needed elsewhere. They can't leave forces there to keep the peace that they've fought so hard for. You'd think these bone-headed Generals and the CIC would see the similarity, but NOOOOOOOOO! :eyes: Those that refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That's exactly what we have going on in Iraq today.

[rodeodance]

4. Good for the LA Times for this story.