http://www.ips.org/index.htmNew Sound and Fury Hide Fear and Worry
Analysis - By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (IPS) - While the U.S.' new military aggressiveness against alleged enemy targets in Iraq provided good video to lead TV news broadcasts this week, its effectiveness, as well as the latest political strategy to win Iraqi ''hearts and minds'', remain very much in question.
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Both the military and political sides of this 'Iraqisation' strategy are designed to work in tandem to defeat the resistance by, on the one hand, mounting a more effective counter-insurgency, and on the other, by persuading Iraqis that Washington has no interest in running their country.
But the strategy carries huge risks.
On the military side, the main worry is over the speed with which recruitment is taking place.
In just the last two weeks, the number of men under arms has doubled to about 118,000. Under these circumstances, as the 'Washington Post' noted Friday, training is virtually non-existent, while screening of recruits for Ba'athist sympathies has necessarily also been reduced.
''How will we know whether the Iraqi recruits can be trusted not to carry out sabotage?'' asked another prominent neo-conservative, 'Weekly Standard' editor William Kristol, in a major attack on Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, called 'Exit Strategy or Victory Strategy?'
Moreover, the CIA itself warned that more aggressive U.S. military operations could very easily undermine the war for ''hearts and minds'', as the United States has learned in many previous wars, not least Vietnam.
But similar and even greater risks attend the political process, where the central issue is how a provisional government will be appointed.
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