A Measure of Success in Iraq

[Barrett808]

A Measure of Success in Iraq
By Thomas E. Ricks and Liz Spayd, Washington Post Staff Writers

MOSUL, Iraq -- Senior U.S. commanders say they are making progress toward defeating insurgents in Iraq, but caution that political disputes over the country's path to sovereignty could prolong or worsen security problems, according to a range of interviews with military officials.

Commanders are heartened by a sharp reduction in the number of attacks on U.S. forces and say that an overhaul of intelligence operations has produced a series of successes that have weakened the anti-occupation insurgency.

"Things have gone well both in Afghanistan and Iraq in terms of our military's ability to get the job done," Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, said in a interview at his headquarters in Qatar after a weeklong tour of the region and consultations with his commanders and the leaders of Pakistan, Jordan and Afghanistan.

But Abizaid said he was reluctant to declare victory in Iraq. "I stay away from the 'turning the corner, light at the end of the tunnel' sort of thing," he said. "There are an awful lot of political movements and activities that will take place between now and moving toward some sort of Iraqi sovereign entity, and that will put an awful lot of pressure on the system within Iraq, and that could change the security situation in dramatic ways."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040123/ts_washpost/a40104_2004jan22&cid=1802&ncid=1480

[mbperrin]

1. That would be a negative measure, right?

thot so!

[arcane1]

2. they so often say "to get the job done"

but what IS the damn job??? Saddam is gone, his sons are dead. The regime is NO MORE (Bush said so on June 5, fer crissakes!)

Remember, before the war, Bush told Saddam that if he and his sons step down, there would BE NO WAR????

rhetorical questions, I know. The "to get the job done" bs is just that- bs

[Tempest]

3. Making progress?

Two more U.S. soldiers killed in an attack, two pilots killed in a helicopter crash?

And that's progress???!!!


"Things have gone well both in Afghanistan and Iraq in terms of our military's ability to get the job done," Army Gen. John Abizaid...

Now you know he's full of shit.

The Taliban all but control the entire country in Afghanistan.

[leftofthedial]

4. that "light at the end of the tunnel"

is undoubtedly incoming mortar fire.

Afghanistan is an anarchy run by warlords and the opium business outside of a few square blocks of Kabul and the US bases.

Iraq is a civil war unfolding in slow motion.

Progress? Bah!

[ScrewyRabbit]

5. That was the most tortured, ass-covering way of saying

that there's no progress to be made, we'll be lucky if we can just keep the lid on this thing enough to keep it from boiling over.

[mike1963]

6. Keep the lid on? We're trying to put out an oil well fire with a

flame thrower.

When you crack eggs to make an omelet and burn it, you got nothing left.
:eyes:

[teryang]

7. Simply false numbers

<Defense Department statistics show a drop in U.S. troops killed in action since November, when the insurgency was at its peak. After sustaining 70 such deaths that month, the U.S. military withstood 25 in December -- the month in which former president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was captured -- and 22 so far in January.>

According to lunaville.org American deaths in December totalled 40 with another another 8 coalition soldier deaths. Relatively speaking this is a higher death rate than for most of the months after the idiot in chief declared major combat over. Deaths in November were 80 not 70. These were higher because of the higher sustained level of attacks as a planned campaign by resistance groups in Iraq.

No doubt the casualty rates are lower in January. But the death rate hasn't returned to the September level. Hardly a pattern of improvement. It is the nature of a guerilla conflict to ebb and flow. There is no inference to be drawn from such a short period. No commentary on the large numbers of Iraqis killed. Apparently this is of no import. Neither is it of import that people are slaughtered at the front door of the American headquarters nor that American aircraft are shot out of the sky and Americans are killed and wounded at virtually any location in the country. The UN won't go there. Politically, the security of Iraqis not Americans is the only thing important to governance in an Islamic nation.