No end to US troubles [View All]

[Say_What]

Drip, drip, drip...

<clips>

WASHINGTON - Despite a two-week public-relations offensive designed to persuade the world and the US public that it knows what it is doing in Iraq, the Bush administration appears increasingly at sea.

That was made clear by a number of developments last week, which were capped Saturday by the killings of two US soldiers in an attack near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and four others killed on Friday, bringing the number of US troops slain since President George W Bush in May declared the end of major hostilities in Iraq to 103.

Passing the particularly disturbing benchmark number of 100 led the television news Friday night, dashing administration hopes that the week would be remembered more for the unanimous United Nations Security Council approval Thursday of a new resolution that officials in Washington depicted as international endorsement of the US-led occupation.

But even that achievement proved anticlimactic, as countries voting for the measure, including France, Russia, Germany and even Pakistan, made clear that they were not yet ready to contribute troops to Iraq and remained doubtful that Washington's strategy for restoring security to the country - if it actually had one - was working.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EJ21Ak06.html