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 | | From: | Willcox | | Subject: | Re: ~ BUSH'S NAZI ASS GETTING REAMED IN QUAGMIRE ~ | | Date: | Sat, 22 Jan 2005 20:54:08 -0700 |
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 | Can you believe it? Two countries totaling FIFTY THREE MILLION people
liberated and we've only lost 1,200 men. Nobody could have predicted
such a lopp-sided victory for the US!!
~ THE MOSUL MARAUDERS ~ wrote:
> Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
>
> Analysis: Iraqi insurgency growing larger, more effective
>
> By Tom Lasseter and Jonathan S. Landay
> Knight Ridder Newspapers
>
> BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States is steadily losing ground to the
> Iraqi insurgency, according to every key military yardstick.
>
> A Knight Ridder analysis of U.S. government statistics shows that
> through all the major turning points that raised hopes of peace in
> Iraq, including the arrest of Saddam Hussein and the handover of
> sovereignty at the end of June, the insurgency, led mainly by Sunni
> Muslims, has become deadlier and more effective.
>
> The analysis suggests that unless something dramatic changes - such as
> a newfound will by Iraqis to reject the insurgency or a large
> escalation of U.S. troop strength - the United States won't win the
> war. It's axiomatic among military thinkers that insurgencies are
> especially hard to defeat because the insurgents' goal isn't to win in
> a conventional sense but merely to survive until the will of the
> occupying power is sapped. Recent polls already suggest an erosion of
> support among Americans for the war.
>
> The unfavorable trends of the war are clear:
>
> - U.S. military fatalities from hostile acts have risen from an average
> of about 17 per month just after President Bush declared an end to
> major combat operations on May 1, 2003, to an average of 71 per month.
>
> - The average number of U.S. soldiers wounded by hostile acts per month
> has spiraled from 142 to 708 during the same period. Iraqi civilians
> have suffered even more deaths and injuries, although reliable
> statistics aren't available.
>
> - Attacks on the U.S.-led coalition since November 2003, when
> statistics were first available, have risen from 735 a month to 2,400
> in October. Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, the multinational forces'
> deputy operations director, told Knight Ridder on Friday that attacks
> were currently running at 75 a day, about 2,300 a month, well below a
> spike in November during the assault on Fallujah, but nearly as high as
> October's total.
>
> -The average number of mass-casualty bombings has grown from zero in
> the first four months of the American occupation to an average of 13.3
> per month.
>
> - Electricity production has been below pre-war levels since October,
> largely because of sabotage by insurgents, with just 6.7 hours of power
> daily in Baghdad in early January, according to the State Department.
>
> - Iraq is pumping about 500,000 barrels a day fewer than its pre-war
> peak of 2.5 million barrels per day as a result of attacks, according
> to the State Department.
>
> "All the trend lines we can identify are all in the wrong direction,"
> said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy
> research organization. "We are not winning, and the security trend
> lines could almost lead you to believe that we are losing."
>
> Most worrisome, the insurgency is getting larger.
>
> "Many Iraqis respect these gunmen because they are fighting the
> invaders," said Nabil Mohammed, a Baghdad University political science
> professor.
>
> The insurgents "are getting smarter all the time. We've seen a lot of
> changes in their tactics that say, one, they're getting help from
> outside, and two, they're learning," said Sgt. 1st Class Glenn Aldrich,
> 35, of Houston, a 16-year Army veteran, after spending an hour recently
> greeting Iraqis on a foot patrol through a Baghdad neighborhood.
>
> The resistance has grown despite suffering huge casualties to
> overwhelming U.S. firepower. Exact statistics aren't available.
>
> Insurgent attacks have shifted from small groups of men shooting at
> tanks with AK-47s to powerful car bombs and roadside explosives, and
> well-planned assaults, kidnappings and assassinations.
>
> "The insurgency will grow larger," said Ghazi Bada al Faisal, an
> employee of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and a Fallujah resident.
> "The child whose brother and father were killed in the fighting will
> now seek revenge."
> - cont. -
> http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10703534.htm
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