Operation qWagmire updates
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Assailants launched a wave of ambushes against U.S. forces, dropping grenades from an overpass, blowing up a vehicle with a roadside bomb and destroying a civilian SUV traveling with U.S. troops, soldiers and Iraqi police said Thursday. Two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were killed.
The onslaught was part of a spiraling series of attacks on coalition forces despite assurances that the troops are mopping up resistance. On Tuesday, six British soldiers were killed in a southern town, undercoring the spread of anti-coalition violence.
Baghdad, Iraq - As the Iraqi summer deepens with spiking temperatures, scorching winds and choking dust, there is growing unrest in the politically volatile slums east of the Tigris River, where more than 1 million residents have seen a precipitous decline in their quality of life since the war.
Set against the implicit American promise that a "regime change" would improve life, conditions here are causing concern among military commanders about a potential violent backlash against the U.S. occupation.
"We are losing the peace," said Maj. Bob Caffrey, Special Forces civil affairs officer. - from here.
"The mission has changed. This is an insurgency now."
The man nominated to be the next senior commander of United States forces in Iraq warned today of continuing attacks against American and British soldiers and said a large occupation force would keep a prolonged presence there.
The officer, Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, also said it was important for the allies to provide proof that Saddam Hussein was dead or alive, since his death or capture could deny Baath Party guerrillas a rallying point.
"A fawning press corps has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect Bush from the consequences of his dishonesty. The New York Times led its 'Week in Review' section with an astonishing piece of equivocation by David E. Rosenbaum arguing, among other absurdities, that if Bush didn't actually KNOW he was peddling phony 'intelligence' about Iraqi nuclear weapons, its nonexistent links to al Qaeda, or even who benefited from his tax cut schemes, then it's unfair to say he lied." - from Gene Lyons's latest column Back to Basics, at HNN.
''We must reorganize our military to be there a long time.''
The United States faces a huge task rebuilding Iraq and restoring security and the White House needs to spell out how much it will cost, two senior senators just back from the Middle East said on Wednesday.
''There's a massive bill that's going to land in the laps of somebody, most likely the American people,'' said Joe Biden, the senior
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