Just How Inept are US Actions in Iraq?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=20&u=/ap/20031028/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_still_a_war_1

Baghdad Attacks Show Unmet Goals In Iraq

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Experts say the United States is not helping itself in this situation. The Bush administration not only is vague about whether what's going on in Iraq still amounts to war, it assumes that the Iraqi resistance comprises only Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s loyalists or foreign terrorists — labels that do not fit every insurgent.

There are at least 15 opposition groups in Iraq, some former supporters of deposed president Saddam but many of which are religious or nationalistic in nature, said William O. Beeman, director of Middle East studies at Brown University.

"The United States is under severe attack by people who want the U.S. out of Iraq. It's not just Saddam supporters, but people who have a whole range of agendas," Beeman said.


He contends the Bush administration does not acknowledge "what they know to be true — namely that they are facing these multiple opposition groups and we have no idea who launched these attacks."


President Bush (news - web sites) insisted Monday that a series of deadly bombings at Red Cross headquarters and three Baghdad police stations was the work of desperate loose cannons who want to halt progress toward restoring Iraq. "They can't stand the thought of a free society," he said.