Salon: Suicide mission (final unraveling of the U.S. war effort)

[kskiska]

The mess-hall bombing in Mosul, say military analysts, signals the final unraveling of the U.S. war effort in Iraq.

The devastating noontime mess-hall attack on a U.S. base just outside of Mosul Tuesday -- which resulted in 22 dead America soldiers and civilians -- was the latest in an escalating series of ever-bolder moves by the Iraqi insurgency against coalition and Iraqi forces. According to Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the explosion was likely incited by a suicide bomber.

To some military analysts, the fact that a suicide bomber could wreak so much damage inside a heavily fortified Army base suggests that the Iraqi occupation has sunk to a new level of chaos. The war in many parts of Iraq, they say, is apparently so out of control that we don't even know what we don't know. The lack of human intelligence is almost total. "The situation in Iraq is so confusing that I have no idea what is going on there, and anyone that tells you that they do is not telling you the truth," says Thomas Nichols, professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

A more blunt assessment comes from retired Military Intelligence Sgt. Maj. J. David Gallant, an instructor at the Army Military Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. "National will is going to falter in its support of this U.S. Involvement -- more than it already has -- if our soldiers cannot even be secure in large, semi-hardened containment areas," he says. "This is a damned cold slap in the face, and not one of these soldiers should have been killed or injured." He goes on to say, "Iraq is heading for civil war and total chaos and the Jan. 30 election is like putting a Flintstones Band-Aid on a gushing femoral artery."

(snip)

While many neoconservatives and senior military officials have avoided comparing Iraq to Vietnam, the analogy can no longer be ignored. The mess-tent bombing even suggests a worse situation. It took a good four to five years for things to go south in a big way during the Vietnam War. That includes sapper attacks and major strikes against U.S. bases, populated areas and government officials -- the kinds of things happening every day now in Iraq. The difference is that we've only been in Iraq for 18 months.

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/23/mosul/index.html

[roguevalley]

1. If anyone says we can't go, tell them Reagan did in Lebanon.

[impeach the gop]

2. And still no bin ladin

The sick joke is on us. The war on tera, is only a war
against our democracy.

[burythehatchet]

3. like putting a Flintstones Band-Aid on a gushing femoral artery

how very descriptive

[KeireG]

5. The timing

The timing of this attack, so close to Christmas, coupled with the severity of it, make a nasty PR situation for the neocons. Especially after the Rumsfeld controversy.

[vixengrl]

16. I agree.

The Bush Administration acts like if there's elections,why, everything would be okey-dokey and hunkey-dory. But if there's still car bombs and suiciders and if the people being elected are getting blown up, and of course if US troops are still over there--it's really cosmetic. The blood's still spilling.

[fortyfeetunder]

4. Security not

You mean to tell me that the USG didn't screen the locals working in their facilities? No security clearance? Now we know everywhere is vulnerable. Mercy on the men and women still there...

[madrchsod]

6. check out alajzeera website

front page. another car bombing blew the shit out of another town killing an unknown number of people. the country has turned into anarchy and bush gives out freedom medals to killers.

[ozymandius]

7. Just who, pray tell, has sunk to a new level of chaos?

Dropping one thousand pound bombs on villages full of people who were never any threat to us?

This war was lost a long time ago when children threw malatov cocktails at troop transports. If you have a ten year-old lobbing incedniary devices at you, the war is lost.

There is no defense against suicide combat. We already know that U.S. troops resist suicide missions at their own legal peril. When the other side sets self preservation aside, this is another indication that the war is lost.

[slor]

8. Amen Brother Ozymandius...

This war was lost when the chimp pumped his fist and said "feels good", minutes before announcing the start of the war.

[indigobusiness]

20. The shameless hypocrisy boggles the mind.

Among other things.

[teryang]

9. The idea that security walls or other techniques

...can help win a war of occupation is ridiculous on its face. The concept shows a complete lack of understanding of what a guerilla war of national independence is all about. If the only way of obtaining security is to put everyone in a armor plated box, politically and tactically you've already failed. The essence of political success is human interaction. If you don't respect or understand the culture, don't speak the language, had no righteous justification for war, and lack politically legitimacy, you've failed before you started. In such a situation, you can only disengage and change your political objectives.

But we already knew that.

[indepat]

10. Teryang, all you say seems irrefutable, but we the people ratified all

all this and all the other policies and actions of this Administration in numbers far too large to be ignored, for whenever we return an incumbent to office, we the people most surely get the government we so richly deserve along with whatever its known/intended policies and actions bring, for good or bad.

[teryang]

11. I respect your point but...

I don't think we returned him to office. I don't believe he was ever elected. Both elections were fraudulent. In that sense, I don't think we deserve this government.

On the other hand, getting the government you deserve goes deeper than the electoral process. A lazy, misinformed, and decadent population living off debt and pursuing consumerism , just doesn't perceive the relationship between their indolence and greed and the type of laws, institutions, and fraudulent schemes they allow to happen.

One does what one can. I believe I heard this once on a dramatic parody of totalitarian government in East Germany and people trying to escape it.

[indepat]

12. Teryang, I respect your points too, but every one eligible to register

to vote had enough information about, just for starters, this administration's wholly reckless and thus ruinous fiscal and tax policies (90% probability of an impending economic Armageddon according to one Wall Street chief economist), full frontal assault on the environment solely for corporate gain, unilateral abrogation of international treaties (the law of the land), evisceration of civil liberties (the Bill of Rights) through the Patriot Act et al, the run-up to a pre-emptive war not ultimately sanctioned by the UN and thus considered illegal by much of the world, and all the horrors, including torture, that have unfolded, i.e., we all had enough information to make an informed decision and thus every one eligible to have registered and failed to vote for Kerry ratified this Administration's policies and actions. That this election was not by far the most lopsided in our short history, that the vote was even remotely close enough to have again been stolen is a mystery that likely will be pondered by historians well over a century later IMHO. But then, the American people have spoken loudly and clearly and besides, what do I know anyway?

[teryang]

13. Your points are all well taken

Your know quite a bit, I always check out your posts.

I could tell you of how my vote was stolen in a few elections, I mean personally and factually, not theoretically. This is just a small personal affront to me, because I've spent a good bit of my adult life serving this country.

I could also describe how the largest polling place in my community in Nov 2004 ( a place where democrats are in the overwhelming majority ) was interfered with by inadequate equipment and facilities, and finally a phony terrorism bomb scare complete with police blocking traffic and an air force flyover of F-16s. I saw it with my own eyes. Does this prove the whole electoral process is fraudulent? No. But there are some professional people whose job it is to assess evidence for a living who saw it and believe so. In fact they were frightened by it. They believe that we saw showed that we are saddled with a different kind of government that has little to do with democracy and rule of law.

I've seen the reports on Representive Feeney during 2000 and I've closely watched the electoral results and litigation associated with it in Florida for the last three general elections. I've studied the Florida electoral laws and the FDLE and other investigations into Dade County electoral fraud. There is no doubt in my mind that elections in Florida are rigged. Does this disprove anything you say?- not at all.

I don't think anything that I've said changes the importance of what you say. I fully support the points that you are making and the principles you are upholding.

[indepat]

17. The entire voting process was fraudulent IMNSHO, but had exit polls

favored Kerry 70-30, even 60-40, any massive fraud would have failed/couldn't have been kept hidden/passed off.

[teryang]

18. Yes I share that opinion n/t

[bemildred]

14. The point is that the goal is "not to lose" now.

Stall, distract, stall, distract, stall, threaten, a week and
another week, and a month, and so on.

[teryang]

15. Yes the juggling act

...from one improv to the next.

[Skittles]

19. imagine if it was Clinton who had started this piece of shit war

IMAGINE.

WHEN THE F*** ARE DEMOCRATS GOING TO DEMAND SOME ACCOUNTABILITY?????


edit: please, everyone, think back to our incompetent "president" landing on that aircraft carrier - IN UNIFORM - declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

[madison2000]

21. "The lack of human intelligence is almost total"

Sounds like our leadership, alright.