Support waning for insurgents in Iraq (Attitudes seen shifting since election)

NBC News ^ | February 7, 2005 | Doug Struck

[RWR8189]

BAGHDAD, Feb. 6 - With a hero who gave his life for the elections, a revived national anthem blaring from car stereos and a greater willingness to help police, the public mood appears to be moving more clearly against the insurgency in Iraq, political and security officials say.

In the week since national elections, police and Iraqi National Guardsmen say that they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country.

None of the officials said they believed the violence was over. An attack Sunday on a police station in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, left 22 policemen and National Guardsmen and 14 attackers dead, the Associated Press reported. The incident was a bloody end to a day in which at least nine other Iraqis were reported slain, and a U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded north of the capital. Four Egyptian engineers were kidnapped and two insurgent groups issued statements threatening to kill an Italian journalist who was taken hostage on Friday.

[MJY1288]

It's Bush's fault

[okie01]

It's Bush's fault

It certainly is.

[SuziQ]

The insurgency began to emerge soon after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, on a tide of anger over the U.S. occupation.

That's bogus and PMS NBC knows it. The insurgency was the Baathists who hadn't taken part in the original fighting, or peeled away from the Army when it became clear we were going to win, and frankly there weren't that many of them. It seemed we came close to wiping out the Fedayeen Sadaam. After that, it became the place for terrorists from around the world to come and fight the Great Satan. It had NOTHING to do with any 'occupation', just the fact that we are who we are.

[SuziQ]

At least 1,300 have been killed in the last six months, according to U.S. officials.

So there have been as many Iraqi policemen and soldiers killed as there have been American soldiers? This fact should be more widely known.

[texasflower]

Ted Kennedy found out about it the hard way. VERY HARD WAY.

Best thing I've seen in awhile.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The headline presumes there once WAS support for the terrorists, but now it is "waning". Liberal media bias again....there was never any popular support for the terrorists.