The plan is to use U.S. troops to stop a civil war? (Crazy neocons!)

[ProSense]

August 6, 2006

Baghdad’s Chaos Raises Questions on U.S. Plan

By DEXTER FILKINS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 — Over the past year, as American commanders pushed Iraqi forces to take over responsibility for this violent capital, Baghdad became a markedly more dangerous place.

Snip...

American commanders say the greater violence in Baghdad does not necessarily suggest that the Iraqi forces are failing. Iraqi police officers and army soldiers are competent, the Americans say, but the explosion of sectarian violence has been of a scope and virulence that could overwhelm any army.

“I don’t think we moved too quickly,” General Caldwell said of putting the Iraqis in charge of Baghdad. “I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the sectarian violence.”

Some independent observers say the Americans have a point — that the job of trying to secure a city of seven million people plagued by terrorism, sectarian violence and crime is a task of a magnitude that has never been attempted by a modern army. Some wonder whether the additional 7,000 American troops bound for the city will be enough.

“I don’t believe this operation was designed to turn a corner,” said Anthony H. Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I believe it was designed to stop a civil war.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?ex=1312516800&en=4b7dbe8e3d602ffc&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

That's serious spin!

[uppityperson]

1. "I don’t think anyone could have anticipated" Need new phrase book

[Webster Green]

2. It was anticipated all over the Internets!.....It was anticipated at DU!

The neo-con idiots and their generals should have been surfing the web.

We were right all along, and they were dead wrong.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. That's what happens

when you only listen to people who agree with you and exclude anyone who dares to have a different or negative POV.