Growing insurgency could doom US plans for Iraq, analysts say

[enough]

The above is the headline as it appeared on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer today, along with a large headline story "Dozens die in a bloody day in Iraq." Maybe things are getting so bad the media won't be able to totally ignore it.


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/9664800.htm

Doubts rise on strategy in Iraq

By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel
Inquirer Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON - The U.S. strategy to create a stable, democratic Iraq is in danger of failing, some current and former American analysts say, and the anti-American insurgency is growing larger, more sophisticated and more violent.

A wave of attacks across Iraq included the deadliest single bombing in Baghdad in six months yesterday and at least seven bombings in the capital Sunday.

The violence increasingly appears to threaten nationwide elections planned for January, which are key to President Bush's hopes for reducing the number of U.S. troops, now 140,000, and making a graceful exit from Iraq. Some experts on Iraq say the best that can be hoped for now is continued chaos that falls short of a civil war.

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White, the former intelligence analyst who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said his conservative estimate was that there were 100,000 Iraqis involved in the Sunni insurgency, including fighters, messengers, and people who provide logistical, housing and other assistance. He discounted estimates by senior U.S. military commanders that the Sunni resistance numbered about 5,000 fighters.


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