Anbar Is Lost Politically, Marine Analyst Says

[ECH1969]

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin's classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq. One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost."

Devlin reports that there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force, said the Army officer, who has read the report. Another person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204.html

[genie_weenie]

1. Yeah, we knew it was lost

when we were on the ground going into Fallujah for Operation Al Fajr.

Holding ground in an assymetrical war...

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. Sad but predictable. The military tried to tell the chickenhawks BEFORE

this war that Iraq would descend into chaos and provide a haven for terrorists.