Homestead mailing list

[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

The Iraq war goes badly, will continue to do so---because El Estupido 
hasn't got enough boots on the ground, or eyes in the sky.---not in 
Baghdad, not in the Sunni Triangle, and not along the Syrian, Iranian or 
any other Iraqi border---an open invitation to the black hats who 
greatly outnumber Americans and a pathetic few hundred "coalition" 
forces Bush assembled for propaganda purposes.  If an incompetent 
"Commander-In-Chief" chooses to lose a war, he loses it---it is that simple


Iraqi intelligence offers insights into insurgency
January 10, 2005
It didn't get much play here, but if what the head of Iraq's internal 
intelligence services told foreign media is correct, we suddenly have a 
much better idea of why the United States is having such a hard time 
quelling the chaos in Iraq.

And more questions about both U.S. estimates of the size of the 
opposition, and our ability to control the borders with Syria and Iran.

According to an Associated Press report, Gen. Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani 
told an Arabic newspaper last week that there are up to 30,000 trained 
terrorists operating against U.S. forces, supported by another 200,000 
people.

He told the Times of London that "the resistance is bigger than the U.S. 
military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people." 
He pegged the number of trained insurgents at 40,000 or more.

Either version of the story helps explain the size, tenacity and 
effectiveness of the insurgency. U.S. troops have their hands full 
protecting themselves, much less ensuring security for the rest of Iraq.

The numbers also reflect badly on U.S. officials who for so long kept 
insisting that the insurgency was the result of a small cadre of foreign 
fighters leading a few thousand disaffected Iraqis.

What Shahwani says about U.S. inability to seal Iraq's border -- long a 
complaint of critics -- is reinforced by what the general says.

Shahwani says the insurgency is being directed by former members of 
Saddam Hussein's regime now working out of Syria and moving easily back 
and forth across the border. This might explain increasing U.S. demands 
that Syria seal its border with Iraq, while indicating American forces' 
inability to seal it.

Iran is also fingered as meddling in Iraq, with both the U.S. and Iraq 
apparently unable to prevent it.

"The problems are still coming from these two countries because the 
borders are open and the support is going on to serve their interests," 
he said.

Shahwani was quoted as saying the insurgency is due in part to the fact 
"People are fed up after two years without improvement. People are fed 
up with no security, no electricity -- people feel they have to do 
something."

Still, using the optimism that appears to animate the Bush 
administration, Shahwani said he expects the "attacks will recede and 
end in one year." Of course, he also speculated that the attacks could 
increase, depending on the outcome of the elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

This insight into what our nominal allies in Iraq are thinking speaks 
volumes about the continuing problems there. We wish we could say it 
also suggests any reasonable means of quelling the problems. But other 
than expanding the war to Iran and Syria, solutions appear as elusive 
for the Iraqis as for the Bush administration.
©The Pensacola News Journal
January 10, 2005