H
Harry Hope
Guest
From The International Herald Tribune, 8/24/07:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/24/asia/assess.php
Intelligence report at odds with U.S. policies on Iraq
By Damien Cave
BAGHDAD:
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate has effectively discredited
the dominant American hypothesis of the past seven months:
that safer streets, secured by additional troops, would create enough
political calm for Iraq's leaders to reconcile.
They have failed to do so in part, suggests the report, which was
released Thursday, because the security gains remain too modest to
reverse Iraq's dynamic of violence and fear.
Baghdad after all, remains a place where women at the market avoid
buying river fish for fear that they've been eating bodies.
But just as important, according to Iraqi political analysts and
officials, Iraq has become a cellular nation, dividing and redividing,
where the constituency for chaos now outnumbers the constituency for
compromise.
The central government has not held.
Provinces and even neighborhoods have become the stage where power
struggles play out, and as a result, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - or
elements of each faction - have come to feel that they could do a
better job on their own.
___________________________________________
Says it all
Harry
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/24/asia/assess.php
Intelligence report at odds with U.S. policies on Iraq
By Damien Cave
BAGHDAD:
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate has effectively discredited
the dominant American hypothesis of the past seven months:
that safer streets, secured by additional troops, would create enough
political calm for Iraq's leaders to reconcile.
They have failed to do so in part, suggests the report, which was
released Thursday, because the security gains remain too modest to
reverse Iraq's dynamic of violence and fear.
Baghdad after all, remains a place where women at the market avoid
buying river fish for fear that they've been eating bodies.
But just as important, according to Iraqi political analysts and
officials, Iraq has become a cellular nation, dividing and redividing,
where the constituency for chaos now outnumbers the constituency for
compromise.
The central government has not held.
Provinces and even neighborhoods have become the stage where power
struggles play out, and as a result, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - or
elements of each faction - have come to feel that they could do a
better job on their own.
___________________________________________
Says it all
Harry