Analysis: U.S. troops must watch and wait as Iraqi violence spikes

[unhappycamper]

Analysis: U.S. troops must watch and wait as Iraqi violence spikes
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 17, 2009

BAGHDAD — Continued bombings in central Baghdad this week, following massive blasts last week, appeared to lend troubling credence to U.S. warnings of increased violence during the run-up to March 7 national elections.

But with the U.S. beginning to reduce troop levels ahead of a much larger drawdown next year, the attacks also underscored how much the U.S. role has changed from past years and the likelihood that even if violence increases significantly, there’s relatively little American ground troops can do about it.

The U.S. military’s confirmation that it warned Iraqi officials ahead of last week’s attacks demonstrated that while the Americans retain significant intelligence-gathering capabilities, the responsibility for acting on that intelligence has passed overwhelmingly to the Iraqis.

That’s largely by design. American military officials are fond of saying that even an imperfect Iraqi solution is better than the best American one. And at the insistence of the Iraqi government, the security agreement that went into effect last summer largely restricted Americans to their bases.

During a visit to Tikrit on Wednesday, Iraq’s defense minister, Abd al-Qadir al-Mufriji, said there are no plans to change the U.S. role.


Rest of article at; http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66709

[tblue]

1. I feel so sorry for the people of Iraq.

What have we done? Ya happy, Darth?