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Good article from some defense expert, Lawrence J. Korb, who was sent aover to Iraq as an independant experts to assess what is going on. He reports that there is a large disconnect between what the Administration says and the reality on the ground.
“We received briefings from the senior staff of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the Iraq Survey Group, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, and the 1st Armored Division. From the top level down, they had a similar message: the situation, even with the attacks of last week, is not as bad as the media wants Americans to believe. Here’s the argument: Nearly 90 percent of the attacks are in one area (the Sunni triangle). The rest of the country is doing just fine. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is meeting its goals. The attacks of last week were caused by the progress we are making (“the bad news is the good news”).
We were told the U.S. military command does not need more troops, just better intelligence. Our briefers contended that more troops, even more Americans, would make the situation worse. Morale of the troops is good because they are aware of their mission, know they are making progress, and know when they are going home (asked about the Stars and Stripes survey, which cited three-quarters saying morale was low and nearly half saying they would not reenlist, they claimed the survey was distorted because it was taken during the heat of the summer). The line goes on: Just as we cannot control our border with Mexico, additional military forces cannot control Iraq’s border. Much of the violence is being caused by outside professionals or mercenary terrorists (when pressed, no one could come up with a figure above 50 for the number of outsiders). And of course, Saddam clearly “desired” to have weapons of mass destruction.
But when one looks out the window or talks to the soldiers a different perspective emerges. Baghdad is not bustling. Mortars are being fired. The soldiers are not sure of their mission. The situation seems at first glance to be getting worse instead of better. Iraqis who once may have, or still, support the U.S. are afraid to even tell their families for fear of what might happen to them.
Our soldiers are uncertain when they are going home (the date they were told was later than the one we read in the official briefings). Moreover, the 1st American Division which arrived in March 2003 is not even sure if they are going back to their home base in Germany. And if this uncertainty wasn’t enough, reaching out to their families is a costly undertaking. There are not enough telephones and our men and women are paying $2 a minute to call home.”
I’m getting pissed off about this line from the Bush admin, that all these new attacks are from international terrorists. They have shown zero evidence to support it and from the above article it’s pretty clear that they don’t have the evidence. But I’m not really that pissed off, cuase it’s just another lie from bush, nothing really new…
*bonus! Hey Bush, your economy still sucks!
“the worst policy in 200 years.” Nobel Prize winning economist George Akerlof