30 Desperate Days

The month of April takes a grueling toll on the U.S. war in Iraq, with both lives and support lost.

By DAVID BALLINGRUD, Times Staff Writer
Published May 2, 2004

April was a terrible month in Iraq.

U.S. options became more limited and the dangers greater. And as bad as it was, it threatens to get worse.

One year ago President Bush landed in dramatic fashion on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to proclaim the end of major fighting in Iraq.

Today the ravaged country appears close to spinning out of control.

"As a society breaks down, first there is terror, then insurgency, then civil war," said Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Corps general and former head of U.S. Central Command. "Iraq is well into the second stage. These are not just a few bands of crazies running around. This is a serious, broad-based insurgency."

"I think we're on the verge of seeing ... some of the progress we've made over the past year come undone," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said recently.

Consider what April brought:

continued here:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/02/Worldandnation/30_desperate_days.shtml

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Wish I could post the entire article. I know it's really pushing the limit, but here's one of the grim statements made by several different people included in the article:

"We have already failed," retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, a former director of the National Security Agency, said Thursday on NBC's Today show. "Staying in longer makes us fail worse. ... I think we've passed the chances not to fail. And now we are in the situation where we have to limit the damage."

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Bring Them Home

in the face of statements like this (also from the article):

"We are paying for mistakes made in the beginning," said Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, and now a fellow at the Center for American Progress. The Bush administration "ignored the advice of people like Zinni and (U.S. Army Gen. Eric K.) Shinseki, and now we're paying for it."

>snip<
Korb suggests the following:

"The administration needs to admit to the American people that it was mistaken about the primary reasons for the war, concede that we are not winning and acknowledge that creating a stable Iraq will be a long, difficult and costly endeavor - it will take at least five years and probably a decade."

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Admit a *mistake*?? I know that'll never happen. We all do. With the story on the front page today, many more people are going to get a gut-check for a wake up call.

Odom is a former Chief of the National Security Agency. He knows whereof he speaks.