Ferocity of Iraq attacks leaves US troops helpless

[spindrifter]

The Sunday Times November 26, 2006

Marie Colvin, Tony Allen-Mills, New York, and Samir Bashir, Baghdad



MORE than 3½ years after President George W Bush launched an invasion of Iraq, which his supporters proclaimed as a “cakewalk”, American troops were yesterday engulfed in a wave of sectarian bloodletting that threatens to destroy the Iraqi government and may jeopardise a crisis summit this week with Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister.

US forces were reduced to near-impotent bystanders as the violence ignited by Thursday’s car bomb attacks on Shi’ite targets in Baghdad spawned a spiral of revenge.

After a series of attacks on Sunni mosques on Friday, insurgents in Diyala province were reported yesterday to have stormed two Shi’ite houses and murdered 21 men in front of their relatives. A suicide car bomber yesterday attacked a joint US-Iraqi checkpoint near Fallujah, killing three civilians and one American soldier.

US and Iraqi troops also killed 22 insurgents and an Iraqi civilian, and destroyed a factory being used to make roadside bombs, during raids north of Baghdad yesterday.

<more>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2472223,00.html

[Trajan]

1. Hell has been unleashed in Iraq ...

Poor Georgie Boy had NO idea; perhaps because he put his hands over his ears and yelled "LA LA LA LA LAHHHHHHHHHHH" ....

How long before the states of the Middle East divide along sectarian lines and join the fray ?

[Monkeyman]

2. No Georgie will blame the Media, Democrats and Cheney

[WinkyDink]

3. Don't forget the protestors. And the voters.

[Skidmore]

4. So why are we there at all?

I don't want to hear any more apologists for this war and excuses to remain there from anyone in DC.

[spindrifter]

5. This shut out demonstrates that there is no point in staying.

I am no expert on military tactics, but if we are impotent in the face of the current methods, then we can't promise anything to the Iraqi people.

[mike_c]

6. America must have an election coming up or something....

Right.