The Daily Background

Apparently the military does not expect to be able to quell the Iraqi insurgency this year.

The Sunni Arab heart of the Iraqi insurgency seems likely to hold its strength the rest of the year, and some of its leaders are now collaborating with al-Qaida terrorists, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

In a report assessing the situation in Iraq, required quarterly by Congress, the Pentagon painted a mixed picture on a day when the U.S. military command in Baghdad said 1,500 more combat troops have arrived in the country. The extra troops are part of an intensified effort to wrest control of the provincial capital of Ramadi from insurgents.

The report to Congress offered a relatively dim picture of economic progress, with few gains in improving basic services like electricity, and it provided no promises of U.S. troop reductions anytime soon.

Forget water, forget electricity, forget schools, forget training Iraqis, forget hospitals, the biggest, most powerful, most high-tech, best financed military in the entire world cannot provide security in Iraq, or safety for its citizens. That’s the bottom line. And anybody who claims that things are getting better in Iraq, or that the country is better off now, or that we’ve reached a turning point, or that any of this– refuses to accept this simple fact. The most overwhelming military presence in the entire world cannot provide safety for the Iraqi people. And this isn’t just some blogger saying it, or some partisan pundit saying it; the Pentagon is being frank about it. Full article.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog