In the last five days, 14 U.S. soldiers have died in Baghdad

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Reporter Returns to Iraq, Finds Changing Attitudes

Citizens Losing Hope as Violence Spikes in Baghdad

By TERRY MCCARTHY

Oct. 5, 2006 — How bad is bad? After six weeks away from Iraq and returning to Baghdad, I find the city appears much worse than when I left.

Last week, according to a U.S. military spokesman, Baghdad experienced more attacks from car bombs and improvised explosive devices than at any other time this year. In the last five days, 14 U.S. soldiers have died in Baghdad, numbers that haven't been seen in the city since the 2003 invasion.

ABC's local Iraqi staff tell us there are an increasing number of neighborhoods they no longer dare to visit.

Compounding the problem for the United States is the uneven state of readiness in the Iraqi security forces. With 15,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad, a city of 5 million, the Americans need Iraqi forces to back them up and keep the peace in neighborhoods as they move on to new areas.

For ordinary Iraqis, life has become ever more difficult. Many women are now afraid to leave their homes to go shopping, children are kept indoors to play, men sleep with guns next to their beds — if they can sleep at all. The physical violence is horrific, but even more widespread is the psychological damage afflicting the entire city, which sees its hope for an end to the violence gradually ebbing away.

The U.S. military said the situation in Baghdad would probably get worse before it gets better, and Iraqi citizens wonder how long they can stay alive before their lives improve.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2533451&page=1


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Erika]

1. 23 troops have died in October

at www.icasualties.org

[Botany]

2. So my short list for Iraq is as follows:

Baghdad just about lost
5,000,000 / 15,000 troop = 333 person per troop

al Anbar just about 1/4 of the Country out of control

Iran & Turkey both have attacked Kurdish areas inside
the country of Iraq

400 attacks per week on U.S. troops nationwide

62% of Iraqis think attacks on Americans O.K.

and not 1 Battalion (600 to 800) of Iraqis that can
operate on their own.

Mission accomplished!

[Erika]

3. Iraq should be the issue going into election

It's W's biggest failure in humanity. He's killing our innocent troops and innocent Iraqis, without a humanitarian cause.

[Botany]

4. It will be

especially @ the rate our troops are dying.

Loosing Baghdad before the election would be deadly to repugs
and it looks like that will happen. What a screaming cluster fuck
bush and his PNAC shits have got us into.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-21...

Senators: Iraq situation bleak

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee offered bleak assessments Thursday of the situation in Iraq and of chances of any near-term withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the armed services committee chairman, said Iraq “is imply drifting sideways” because the new government has been unable to exercise the reins of power or find a way to disarm the secular militias that are endangering lives.

Warner flatly declared that the U.S. is “losing the Baghdad campaign” as the number of casualties rises.

“War grinds on and we taking distressing tolls of life and limb every day,” he said.

Warner said something big needs to happen to jump start the government so it regains some hope after last year’s elections. He suggested another vote on a referendum for the Iraqi people about whether and how long they want U.S. troops to remain.