A Times: Lifting seven veils of the Iraqi illusion . (Very Informative)

[passy]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH24Ak03.html

"Administratively, the Iraqi government has no existence outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone - and little presence within it. Whatever local apparatus exists elsewhere in the country is run by local leaders, usually with little or no loyalty to the central government and not dependent on it for resources it doesn't, in any case, possess. "

"The "Iraqi army" is a misnomer. The government's military consists of Iraqi units integrated into the US-commanded occupation army. These units rely on the Americans for intelligence, logistics and - lacking almost all heavy weaponry themselves - artillery, tanks and any kind of air power. The Iraqi "air force" typically consists of fewer then 10 planes with no combat capability. The government has no real control over either personnel or strategy. "

"More important, when it comes to long-term US casualties, the trends are not good. In recent months, US units had been pulled off the streets of the capital. But the Iraqi army units that replaced them proved incapable of controlling Baghdad in even minimal ways. So in addition to fighting the Sunni insurgency, American troops are now back on the streets of Baghdad in the midst of a swirling civil war, with US casualties likely to rise. "

"The portrait of chaos across Iraq that US news generally offers is a genuine half-truth. Certainly, Baghdad has been plunged into massive and worsening disarray as both the war against the Americans and the civil war have come to be concentrated there, and as the terrifying process of ethnic cleansing has hit neighborhood after neighborhood, and is now beginning to seep into the environs of the capital."

more at link

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick this!!!!!

Great summary of the real deal-this article sounds like truth so rare in the US media and it is written by an American.

[struggle4progress]

4. !

:kick:

[Marrak]

2. But if the occupation continues,

"there will certainly come a point - perhaps already passed - when the collapse of government legitimacy, the destruction wrought by the war and the horror of terrorist violence become self-sustaining. If that point is reached, all parties will enter a new territory with incalculable consequences."

Just this Monday, didn't the Preznit say something different? Or was this what he was getting at?

[eccles12]

3. Pray tell me why Bush is at 42% approval?

Is the American public really that stupid? Arrogant? Racist? Afraid?