First, is the absence of any indication that we are making progress anywhere.
Second, our frustrations are not limited to Iraq itself which have ominous implications for the whole of the world war against terror:
(Only later will we know what military actions or demonstrations in other parts of the world had to be canceled or postponed because of the growing guerrilla war in Iraq.)
Third, we are flat failing in the only known avenue toward victory and extraction of the force, the standing up of a competent and motivated Iraqi security force:
...it is the systematic and dogged attacks by nationalist insurgents that have caused government forces to crumble, leaving U.S. troops without meaningful local support. Major desertions of Iraqi troops and officers in Al Fallujah and As Samarra occurred when they were faced with fighting nationalist insurgents. While some government troops are too frightened to face nationalist guerrillas in combat, others refuse to fight them out of sympathy for their cause -- namely, the liberation of Iraq. This has led to the growing clandestine cooperation between nationalist guerrillas and Iraqi security personnel, who provide insurgents with intelligence about the movements and vulnerabilities of U.S. forces.
This observation leads me to believe that we are losing the most important battle of the war.
Fourth, just as ominous is the lurking threat of the Shia rising up against us. So far, they have not and why should they, we are dying for them doing their will. I cannot shake the image of Ho Chi Minn patiently waiting. The Shiia must know that the American public will not much longer support this war. That they will carry the elections. That they can take us on at any time and do so from the posture of legitimacy. We will become illegitimate after the election and a demand that we depart. They can simply invite us out after we kill enough Sunnis and fully arm the Shiia. We should then be utterly without moral standing to remain and the Shiia would be free to conduct a quiet revolution toward whatever theocratic terroristic state which they might fancy. Net result after the expenditure of blood and treasure: A second Iran teed up for the Shia courtesy of Uncle Sam.
No one accepts the need for victory in Iraq more than I do but the path to victory is never along the lane of wishful thinking. If this report is to be believed, and the mounting casualties suggest it is to be believed, we must change tactics or lose this war.
