Colin Powell says insurgents are winning in Iraq -Newsweek

[Rose Siding]

It's second hand, but For What It's Worth...

snip>
For months the American people have heard, from one side, promises to "stay the course" in Iraq (George W. Bush); and from the other side, equally vague plans for gradual withdrawal (John Kerry). Both plans depend heavily on building significant Iraqi forces to take over security. But the truth is, neither party is fully reckoning with the reality of Iraq—which is that the insurgents, by most accounts, are winning. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former general who stays in touch with the Joint Chiefs, has acknowledged this privately to friends in recent weeks, NEWSWEEK has learned. The insurgents have effectively created a reign of terror throughout the country, killing thousands, driving Iraqi elites and technocrats into exile and scaring foreigners out. "Things are getting really bad," a senior Iraqi official in interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government told NEWSWEEK last week. "The initiative is in hands right now. This approach of being lenient and accommodating has really backfired. They see this as weakness."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6370591/site/newsweek/

[karlrschneider]

1. And he didn't know this 2, 3, 4 MONTHS ago?

:eyes:

[aquart]

2. Didn't need Colin for that.

[charlyvi]

3. I think the Dems, and

some of the honorable Republicans recognize this fact. Hell, if
WE recognize it, the people who have access to the actual CIA and Pentagon info MUST see it. It's just the dishonorable politicos who are putting election year politics above the lives of our servicepeople and honor of our country that want to bury truth.

GO KERRY/EDWARDS!!!

In the words of the immortal Magistrate

LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!

[cliss]

4. Colon needs to be a little more specific.

What he should really say is that "The IRAQIS" are now winning in Iraq. They are Iraqis who want to be able to make their own decisions about their own country.

And he's right: they are winning the struggle. The US cannot hope to counter the insurgency with only 137,000 troops in a country of 22 million which is opposed to them being there. It's true that we've lost about 1,100 soldiers versus the Iraqis losing 100,000. That's about 1 to 1,000. For every US soldier who dies, 1,000 Iraqis die. So we do end up killing many more of them.

But financially, they have got the upper hand. They spend $1,000.00; we spend $1,000,000,000.00. Every month, this war is costing us $4.9 billion. And this estimate may be too low, considering that insurgencies have gone up.

There is absolutely NO WAY we can keep this up. The money in our treasury will run out before we get a lid on these people. It's simply out of our reach, money-wise. So he's right: they have won.

The Pentagon has understood this. There was a memo written by Donald RumsFailed a while back that acknowledged this. A little late, in my opinion.

Thanks for nothing, Colon Bowel.