Sunday, June 17, 2007

US: 60 Pct. of Baghdad Not Controlled

Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said American troops launched the offensive in Baghdad's Arab Jabour and Salman Pac neighborhoods Friday night. It was the first time in three years that U.S. soldiers entered those areas, where al-Qaida militants build car bombs and launch Katyusha rockets at American bases and Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.

The overall commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said during a news conference with visiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the operation would put troops into key al-Qaida-held areas surrounding Baghdad.

Odierno said there was a long way to go in retaking the city from Shiite Muslim militias, Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaida terrorists. He said only about "40 percent is really very safe on a routine basis" _ with about 30 percent lacking control and a further 30 percent suffering "a high level of violence."
Our stategy in Iraq is like playing a game of wack a mole. The insurgents just continue to move from area to area. There is no strategy that can be successful at this time without at least double our current number of troops and that is a strategy that the American people will not support.

This war was lost from day one with poor planning and execution but what was the real purpose for this war to begin with? Even with the disaster that is currently Iraq the oil companies stand to reap the benefits of this disastrous policy while the Iraqi people are left with death, destruction and the theft of their greatest natural resource.

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