Overwhelming force in Iraq, more troops, has yet to increase security

[bigtree]

July 19, 2006

More U.S.-trained Iraqi troops have yet to increase security

BAGHDAD - Despite the addition of almost 100,000 U.S.-trained Iraqi troops in the past year, American efforts to pacify central Iraq and the capital appear to be failing, challenging a central tenet of U.S. strategy that training more Iraqi security forces will allow U.S. troops to start going home.

The number of trained Iraqi soldiers and police grew from an estimated 168,670 in June 2005 to about 264,600 this June. Yet Baghdad's morgue is receiving nearly twice as many bodies each day as it did last year.

"Even as the number and capabilities of Iraqi security forces have increased, overall security conditions have deteriorated," concluded a report that the Government Accountability Office submitted to Congress earlier this month.

Baghdad, usually clogged with traffic, has fallen quiet in recent weeks. Shops are closed. Roads are nearly empty in many neighborhoods. No one wants to be caught out in the open by gunmen, who set up roadblocks with seeming impunity.

U.S. officers in Iraq acknowledged the difficulties but counseled patience.


http://www.startribune.com/722/story/562850.html

[cornermouse]

1. I believe I heard the radio say that approximately 100 people

are dying everyday in Iraq due to the terrorist attacks in one form or another. Probably NPR since mainstream media doesn't report facts like this.

[magellan]

4. Terrorist attacks or sectarian attacks?

I know there's a real thin line there, but I think it would correctly be referred to as sectarian attacks.

Earlier there was a thread saying 55 a day are dying, and that's risen from last month. Whatever the number it's too many. Iraq is in a state of anarchy and there's little any government can do about it, much less a puppet one.

[Selatius]

9. It is most likely sectarian attacks.

The counterpunch article gives a grim account:

In the last ten days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994. On one single spot on the west bank of the Tigris river in north Baghdad between 10 and 12 bodies have been drifting ashore every day.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/19/18289691.php

[cornermouse]

10. I think you're probably right.

It probably was sectarian. The number really caught my attention.

[rodeodance]

2. U.S. officers in Iraq acknowledged the difficulties but counseled patience

[bigtree]

7. unbelievable

[Swede]

3. The US army wanted at least 250,000 troops when they invaded.

Not to win the war,put to win the peace.

[mmonk]

5. Pacification.

I hate that word because it usually means escalation. If you want to pacify a population, you have to give them real power, real decision making, and a real stake in controlling what happens.

[flamin lib]

6. Insurgent wars cannot be won militarily. It just can't be done.

How long has Israel existed? How long have they dealt with the Palestinians? The Palestinians use rocks and bottles (and now the suicide bomber) against US supplied F-16s, tanks, rockets and every other type of modern weaponry.

It still boils down to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

It won't end until both sides are completely blind and toothless.

[aceman2373]

8. I AGREE 100%!

[endarkenment]

11. Wa Wa What? Vietnamization isn't working?

Oh wait. Must have slipped a few decades there. Sorry.

[flamin lib]

12. We are the people our parents warned us about.

I just wish the flashbacks were more fun . . .