Notable Items from Salon.

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Mon, 01 Nov 2004 07:20:38 -0500

Subject:Notable Items from Salon.

 

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html#insurgents

 

 

" 60 Minutes " Says Soldiers are Sitting Ducks

 

CBS had its wings clipped by the Bush-Cheney machine after its

National Guard memo fiasco. But on the final Sunday before the

election, " 60 Minutes " was back in action with a hard-hitting piece on

how poorly equipped many U.S. soldiers are in Iraq. The Steve

Kroft-narrated piece, which was produced by the excellent Leslie

Cockburn, showed how soldiers -- particularly from National Guard and

reserve units -- are sent into harm's way in trucks jerryrigged with

plywood and sandbags instead of proper armor, and often lack field

radios and even bullets. Soldiers call the vehicles " cardboard

coffins, " the mother of an Oregon National Guardsman told Kroft.

 

The " 60 Minutes " report echoed a a charge often made by Kerry on the

campaign trail about the families of U.S. soldiers desperately buying

body armor on the Internet to protect their ill-equipped loved ones in

Iraq.

 

If the American people needed any more evidence of Bush administration

incompetence in Iraq, " 60 Minutes " delivered it. And if the White

House needed any more reason to loathe CBS News, they just got it.

 

-- David Talbot [22:16 PST, Oct. 31, 2004]

 

Prepare for a bloodbath in Iraq

 

All eyes are now riveted on the final 48 hours of the presidential

campaign -- but glimpse past the flood of horse-race stories and the

news from Iraq looks plenty grim. The New York Times reports that Iraqi

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued repeated warnings today that

negotiations with the rebels who hold Falluja " are swiftly running out

of time " before American and Iraqi forces massed around the town launch

a major attack to retake control. A second Times report details a

daunting backdrop for the planned offensive:

 

" The American military is making final preparations for an all-out

invasion of Falluja in hopes that overrunning the insurgent sanctuaries

there would quell the guerrilla war across Iraq and secure the city of

300,000 for the country's first democratic elections, scheduled for

January.

 

" But it is the insurgents who have seized the offensive in recent weeks,

and the number of attacks per day has risen by 30 percent or more since

mid-October, at the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan,

military officials say. The relentless assaults have driven a wall

between the foreign presence here and the rest of the country, with

soldiers, diplomats and contractors holed up in their fortified hotels

or bases while guerrillas move freely and strike at will. "

 

And a third Times report has more than a dozen high level U.S. military

and government officials expressing deep concern about " obstacles to

victory " in Iraq.

" Senior American military commanders and civilian officials in Iraq are

speaking more candidly about the hurdles that could jeopardize their

plans to defeat an adaptive and tenacious insurgency and hold elections

in January. Outwardly, they give an upbeat assessment that the

counterinsurgency is winnable. But in interviews with 15 of the top

American generals, admirals and embassy officials conducted in Iraq in

late October, many described risks that could worsen the security

situation and derail the political process that they are counting on to

help quell the insurgency.

 

" Commanders voiced fears that many of Iraq's expanding security forces,

soon to be led by largely untested generals, have been penetrated by

spies for the insurgents. Reconstruction aid is finally flowing into

formerly rebel-held cities like Samarra and other areas, but some

officers fear that bureaucratic delays could undermine the aid's calming

effects. They also spoke of new American intelligence assessments that

show that the insurgents have significantly more fighters -- 8,000 to

12,000 hard-core militants -- and far greater financial resources than

previously estimated.

 

" Perhaps most disturbing, they said, is the militants' campaign of

intimidation to silence thousands of Iraqis and undermine the government

through assassinations, kidnappings, beheadings and car bombings. New

gangs specializing in hostage-taking are entering Iraq, intelligence

reports indicate. "

 

Colin Powell himself believes the reconstruction is in deep trouble. His

warning to President Bush before the war about the " Pottery Barn "

principle -- that if the U.S. were to " break " Iraq by invading, we would

then own the combustible pile of shards -- now looks depressingly

accurate.

 

Make no mistake: After Americans select the nation's next commander in

chief this Tuesday, he'll have a daunting mess on his hands -- whether

it's the man promising to seek some badly needed international help to

clean it up, or the one who turned his back on so many allies and led us

charging straight into it.

 

-- Mark Follman [14:58 PST, Oct. 31, 2004]

 

 

Colin Powell believes U.S. is losing Iraq war

 

Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in

recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to

Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces

" from top to bottom, " a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in

tomorrow's issue of the magazine, " from decision making to the lower

levels. "

 

This is a particularly troubling development for the U.S. military, as

it prepares to launch an all-out assault on the insurgent strongholds of

Fallujah and Ramadi, since U.S. Marines were counting on the newly

trained Iraqi forces to assist in the assault. Newsweek reports that

" American military trainers have been frantically trying to assemble

sufficient Iraqi troops " to fight alongside them and that they are

" praying that the soldiers perform better than last April, when two

battalions of poorly trained Iraqi Army soldiers refused to fight. "

 

If the Fallujah offensive fails, Newsweek grimly predicts, " then the

American president will find himself in a deepening quagmire on

Inauguration Day. "

 

-- David Talbot

 

Blair bashes Bush

 

Not a good sign for the coalition of the billing, uh, willing. Tony's

better half, Cherie Blair, unloaded on President Bush during a speech to

Harvard law students this weekend, rebuking him for his human rights

abuses at Guantanamo and his retro views on gay rights. The Bush circle

was not amused, according to the Scotsman. Her candid remarks were " all

the more embarrassing " for the PM and the prez, the Scottish newspaper

pointed out, coming days before the election. But if the Brits are

getting a little restive, Poland still seems solid. President Aleksander

Kwasniewski's missus seems safely under wraps as we go to press.

 

-- David Talbot