Posted on 09/11/2006 7:08:35 AM PDT by taylorstreet
Iraq has a population of approximately 25 million. If there is a problem, it must be put in context.
Don't forget that this is the WaPo reporter that has a book on the market blasting the "failures" in Iraq. The book's title - FIASCO. But he has NO agenda (sarc)
Bingo.
With a "twist, twist" here and a "spin, spin" there...
Believe the Washington Post at your peril.
Think of all the other "leaks" to WaPo before you buy into this stuff...
From what I've read it is basically pretty quiet. There was an article that came out a few weeks ago that talked about the Islamists posting flyers which threatened to take back Fallujah and the comments from the people who were interviewed were surprisingly upbeat. Additionally, this news article talks about no functioning Iraqi institutions, but that is wrong because the Iraqi Army is functioning and it is doing a pretty good job. The effectiveness of the Iraqi Army has particularly been reflected in their ability to support the Iraqi police, who have within the last year begun to stand up to the insurgents. Strategypage noted in this regard, that the Iraqi police had not lost an Iraqi police station to the insurgents in months. Formerly, that sort of loss occurred on a monthly basis.
In late 2005 we got a whole bunch of tribal chiefs in Western Iraq to come to the table and talk to us about ways of helping to drive al-Qaeda from Western Iraq.
Sadly, we didn't have the forces to protect them and just about everyone of the tribal chiefs who met with us was killed by al-Qaeda. Now we have almost no allies in Anbar who will come to the table and work with us.
It's not. It's pretty right-on, unfortunatley.
The bigger context that the MSM never brings up is that we and the Iraqi Army have acted as the hammer in driving the Sunni insurgents towards Baghdad.
This has meant that the Shia civilian population (and to a lesser extent, the Kurds) have acted as the anvil.
Look at the patterns of violence over the past several months: almost all of it in or near Baghdad.
U R correct but it is scum bag breeding ground zero.
After the 2004 election we should have put in an extra division or two in Anbar and finished the problem. Because, we didn't we are going to have to do it after this election or we will be hearing about al-Qaeda in Iraq for a very long time.
After first being ordered by the White House, the initial assault on Fallujah was called off by the same politicians who had called for it in the first place. In the intervening months, the insurgency all over Al-Anbar grew like a weed because they had "defeated the Marines". Ramadi has never been cleaned out and remains today a source of much of the support for the fighting in Al -Anbar and Baghdad.
Can we fix it? Or does that job belong to the Iraqi Army?
Exactly: Stop farting around and destroy the whokle friggin place. Make it look like Hiroshima and leave. let Al Quaeda have the smoking ruins.
Good to see you back home, Allegra! Now you can see how the media spins things up close and first-hand.
Level the place and do so with a clear conscience!
Last I heard, people were actually moving there from elsewhere. Security is VERY tight there and the people want to be where the bombers aren't. Also money and jobs are flowing there now that everything isn't blowing up.
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