Yeah, things are going super duper in Iraq. The insurgency is only a minority of people, and it might be Iran's fault anyway, and after all, Bush made it perfectly clear to the American public that we were walking into the middle of "centuries of conflict." This is exactly the way he depicted it. [end sarcasm]
Truth is, this war has been a colosal blunder. And this war has made us less safe. Terrorism was at an all-time high, (despite that little boo-boo at the State Dept. that caused them to have to revise the lies - I mean figures). Iraq was a mistake to begin with, but more disgusting, the way it has been conducted has been with domestic political considerations in mind, and has cost us more of our troops than should have been necessary.
And we're losing. We have virtually no control over areas within the "Sunni Triangle." The insurgents control it. And Bush's plan is to wait until after the elections to try to plow in there and get control before the January elections so that there will be enough people participating to call it legitimate. In other words: the Bush administration is going to fail again. And we just sit here and suck on it. We're fucking pathetic.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16309-2004Sep12.html" target="_blank">FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 12 -- The outgoing U.S. Marine Corps general in charge of western Iraq said Sunday he opposed a Marine assault on militants in the volatile city of Fallujah in April and the subsequent decision to withdraw from the city and turn over control to a security force comprised of former Iraqi soldiers.
That security force, known as the Fallujah Brigade, was formally disbanded last week. Not only did the brigade fail to combat militants, it actively aided them, surrendering weapons, vehicles and radios to the insurgents, according to senior Marine officers. Some of brigade's members even participated in attacks on Marines ringing the city, the officers said.
The comments by Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, made shortly after he relinquished command of the First Marine Expeditionary Force on Sunday, amounted to a stinging broadside against top U.S. military and civilian leaders who ordered the invasion and the withdrawal. His statements also provided the most detailed explanation -- and justification -- of Marine actions in Fallujah this spring, which have been widely criticized for increasing insurgent activity in the city and turning it into a no-go zone for U.S. troops. </a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/international/middleeast/29province.html" target="_blank">BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 28 - While American troops have been battling Islamic militants to an uncertain outcome in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, events in two Sunni Muslim cities that stand astride the crucial western approaches to Baghdad have moved significantly against American plans to build a secular democracy in Iraq.
Both of the cities, Falluja and Ramadi, and much of Anbar Province, are now controlled by fundamentalist militias, with American troops confined mainly to heavily protected forts on the desert's edge. What little influence the Americans have is asserted through wary forays in armored vehicles, and by laser-guided bombs that obliterate enemy safe houses identified by scouts who penetrate militant ranks. Even bombing raids appear to strengthen the fundamentalists, who blame the Americans for scores of civilian deaths.
American efforts to build a government structure around former Baath Party stalwarts - officials of Saddam Hussein's army, police force and bureaucracy who were willing to work with the United States - have collapsed. Instead, the former Hussein loyalists, under threat of beheadings, kidnappings and humiliation, have mostly resigned or defected to the fundamentalists, or been killed. Enforcers for the old government, including former Republican Guard officers, have put themselves in the service of fundamentalist clerics they once tortured at Abu Ghraib.</a>
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