Official US agency paints dire picture of 'out-of-control' Iraq

[kpete]

Official US agency paints dire picture of 'out-of-control' Iraq

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday January 18, 2006
The Guardian


An official assessment drawn up by the US foreign aid agency depicts the security situation in Iraq as dire, amounting to a "social breakdown" in which criminals have "almost free rein".
The "conflict assessment" is an attachment to an invitation to contractors to bid on a project rehabilitating Iraqi cities published earlier this month by the US Agency for International Development (USAid).

The picture it paints is not only darker than the optimistic accounts from the White House and the Pentagon, it also gives a more complex profile of the insurgency than the straightforward "rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists" described by George Bush.

The USAid analysis talks of an "internecine conflict" involving religious, ethnic, criminal and tribal groups. "It is increasingly common for tribesmen to 'turn in' to the authorities enemies as insurgents - this as a form of tribal revenge," the paper says, casting doubt on the efficacy of counter-insurgent sweeps by coalition and Iraqi forces.

Meanwhile, foreign jihadist groups are growing in strength, the report said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1688730,00.html

[G_j]

1. has Bush fired the authors of the report yet?

seems this must have slippd under the radar

What did the Iraqi people ever do to deserve this?

[BadgerKid]

2. which country again?

An official assessment drawn up by the US foreign aid agency depicts the security situation in Iraq as dire, amounting to a "social breakdown" in which criminals have "almost free rein".

As opposed to the criminals in the Administration and the social breakdown of the US ?