Two stories in Newsweek/MSNBC point to two major issues.
First in one story from a month ago. It is clear that the situation is getting worse, not better.
July 16 - I've always been something of an optimist, but everyone has a breaking point. Mine came on Saturday as I toured the infamous 'Green Zone' in central Baghdad.
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The security situation has deteriorated so badly that journalists rarely venture out unless they're embedded with U.S. soldiers. That wasn't the case early last year, when foreigners could walk the streets
The second is far more sinister. In a story three weeks old, a bombing at the HQ of the Wolf brigade displays one of the big holes in creating a viable Iraqi defense force.
The problem goes far beyond the seemingly limitless pool of suicide bombers. In the long run, the insurgents' most powerful weapon may be one that is practically silent: a vast network of infiltrators, spies and recruiters.
According to intelligence officials in Baghdad, whose clearances bar them from speaking publicly, Iraq's security services have hundreds of "ghost soldiers"; members who vanish, sometimes for months on end, but continue to draw their pay. The fear is that they are working for the insurgency while keeping up their ties in uniform.
We are in a downward spiral, and there is little hope of anything close to a successful solution. Bush has already started to try to lower the expectations, that he so eagerly promoted just months ago. I wonder when he will start to hint about the abject failure this shaping up to be.
1 comment:
I think it's clearly seen in that in January with the elections words like "democracy" and "freedom" were overused by the administration. They have been placed with contradicting statements and "process" and "stability."
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