Insurgency seen forcing change in Iraq strategy -Globe

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Two years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Iraq conflict has evolved into a classic guerrilla war, they argue. Outbreaks of fighting are followed by periods of relative calm and soon thereafter, a return to rampant violence. Despite significant guerrilla setbacks and optimistic predictions by a host of American commanders earlier this year, the Sunni-backed insurgency remains as strong as ever, forcing American officials and their Iraqi allies to seek a political solution to the bloodshed. Pentagon officials and current members of the military interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity.

''We are not going to win the unconditional surrender from the insurgents and have no choice but to somehow bring them into society," said retired Army Colonel Paul Hughes, an Iraq war veteran who is now at the government-funded US Institute for Peace. ''To think there will be one climactic military event to end this is foolish. Those who cling to that don't understand."
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New US government analyses suggest that the insurgents -- led by Sunni nationalists, remnants of Hussein's police state, and foreign extremists waging holy war -- have vastly more staying power than previously thought.
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''The insurgency is still mounting an effort comparable to where they were a year ago," said Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer and specialist on counterinsurgency operations who directs the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent think tank in Washington. ''We do something we think will change things, but a month or two later casualties and the level of violence are back to where they were."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/10/insurgency_seen_forcing_change_in_iraq_strategy/?page=2

do they?

Wonder when it's going to dawn on them that there's a civil war going on? Some people say it's coming but I'm on the side that says that it's already here.

And anyone who says the bush** administration doesn't know just what a bind they're in hasn't heard that they're not-so-secretly dealing with the Sunnis now who are demanding more seats in the 'new' whatever it is that you want to call that farce installed after the elections over there.

edit: horrible typing skills

I'd be willing to bet that we now have the dumbest military leadership we've had since the war of 1812 (when we lost to Canada).

.

because the Administration will push dumb policy on them, no matter how dumb or smart they are. And the military will parrot the Admin line, no matter how dumb it is.

and foreign extremists", and keep losing the war.

The US military has time & time again said it is NOT "foreign fighters", it is NOT "Sunni" nationalists and it is NOT "Hussein remnants".

The day the US government realizes and admits the "foreign fighters" are less than 5%, as the US military has said time & time again, and the majority are ORDINARY IRAQIS pissed off all to hell about their nation being attacked and occupied and bombed all to crap by an arrogant pushy bunch of FOREIGN FIGHTERS who can't even speak their language, THAT'S the day the US will realize how to win the war; GET OUT.

in Iraq strategy that the Bushistas are willing to undertake.

that the US cannot fight. The US military is top-heavy; it's designed for battle, like facing huge marching armies or dropping indiscriminate bombs on selected locations.

But guerrilla warfare - no. We couldn't fight it in VietNam, and we can't win in Iraq.

It was shocking to realize that the US, the world's most powerful military, is being defeated by a country with no military. That really hit home.

And look at this statement by Col. Hughes: "We have no choice but to somehow bring them into society". Really? Who is WE here? The US? If we're going to be 'bringing', he can forget it. Again, it just reveals this Lincoln Log mentality, where Hughes believes we start out with a pile of logs, and start building from scratch.

Not the British in the Americas, not the Soviets in Afghanistan, not the British in N. Ireland, not the French in Algeria, etc.

Coulda fooled me

:(