's really going on in Iraq - Must read!!

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FALLUJAH, Iraq — Insurgents in Anbar province, the center of guerrilla resistance in Iraq, have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate.

After repeated major combat offensives in Fallujah and Ramadi, and after losing hundreds of soldiers and Marines in Anbar during the past two years — including 75 since June 1 — many U.S. officers and enlisted men assigned to Anbar have stopped talking about winning a military victory in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.

Instead, they're trying to hold on to a few population centers and hit smaller towns in quick-strike operations designed to disrupt insurgent activities temporarily.

Long insurgency seen

That's unlikely in Anbar, he said. Davis expects the insurgency to last for years, hitting American and Iraqi forces with quick ambushes, bombs and mines. Roadside bombs have hit vehicles Davis was riding in three times this year.

"We understand counterinsurgency ... we paid for these lessons in blood in Vietnam," Davis said. "You'll get killed on a nice day when everything is quiet."

Most of Iraq is far quieter than Anbar. But Anbar is Iraq's largest province and home to the Arab Sunni minority, which dominated the government under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

It's the strategic center of the country and failure to secure it could thwart the Bush administration's hopes of helping to create a functioning Iraqi democracy.
continued... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002454616_anbar28.html