More Troops Mean More Trouble

[cal04]

Jim Lobe

The Pentagon's announcement this week that it is adding 12,000 more troops to the approximately 138,000 soldiers it already has in Iraq has put an abrupt end to the fleeting sense of triumph that followed November's "victory" by U.S. Marines who regained control of Fallujah, the main Sunni rebel stronghold.

While the administration sought to spin the decision as a matter of keeping the insurgents "on the run" and backing up security for elections scheduled to take place Jan. 30, most analysts have described the move as an effective admission that Washington's counter-insurgency campaign has not, in fact, been going particularly well.

That conclusion was anticipated to some extent just the day before, as the Pentagon confirmed 134 U.S. servicemen were killed in November, making it the most lethal month since the March 2003 invasion along with April, when the same number of soldiers were killed battling Sunni rebels and Shia insurgents in Baghdad and in the occupied country's south.


"I fear that it signals a 're-Americanization' ... of our strategy in Iraq," retired Army Col. Ralph Hallenback, who worked with the U.S. occupation in 2003, told Thursday's Washington Post. The announcement also offered an "I-told-you-so" moment to any number of critics, who have argued from the outset that the Pentagon's civilian leadership, in hoping to prove that wars could be won with fewer forces, more firepower and greater speed, was dead wrong.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4105

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh, you could always win a war

if you mean taking over territory. But you can't win a peace with few troops. The mistakes were made from the outset-oil fields secured, nothing else, no stability in the country, letting the Iraqi army melt away without being disarmed...the list goes on.

[leftchick]

2. not been going well is an understatement....

and November brought a NEW record of 136 dead... :(


Latest Fatality: Dec 02, 2004


An Incomplete List of Contractors Killed or Missing in Iraq
Military Fatalities: By Month
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
12-2004 4 0 0 4 1.33 3
11-2004 136 4 0 140 4.67 30
10-2004 63 2 2 67 2.16 31
9-2004 80 3 4 87 2.9 30
8-2004 66 4 5 75 2.42 31
7-2004 54 1 3 58 1.87 31
6-2004 42 1 7 50 1.67 30
5-2004 80 0 4 84 2.71 31
4-2004 135 0 5 140 4.67 30

http://icasualties.org/oif/