[Marxism] Reality intrudes on reporting War in Iraq

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The NYTimes article below contains startling revelations showing that the
war is proceeding very badly indeed. First, the recent announcement by the
Iraqi government that mosques would no longer be raided is expected to be
"revised." "The revised policy, the American officer implied, would allow
Iraqi forces, backed by Americans, to raid mosques when they are used as
insurgent strongholds." Well, duh. What were they raiding for in the past,
if not to find insurgents? This is not going to help anything. Far, far
better to have said nothing than for the Iraqis to say we won't, then the
Americans say we will. It only underlines the puppet nature of the
government.

Second, Iraqi confidence in the new government has fallen from 85%
immediately after the new government's election to 45%. This must be related
to ordinary Iraqis' hope that the security situation, the greatest of all
the running sores of the occupation, would improve, while it has actually
gotten far worse.

Third, the offensive in Anbar province has been conducted entirely by US
forces, without the participation of any Iraqis. In other words, the new
Iraqi defense forces were considered not useful for whatever reason in a
fight the United States picked with the insurgency.

Fourth, the casualty ratio of the Anbar province offensive is reported as
125 insurgents killed to 14 US troops killed. Even taking these figures at
face value, which I do not, it is inconceivable that the US can sustain
fighting against the insurgency over time with this level of troop losses.
>From any reasonable point of view, this is a great victory for the
insurgents. Recall that Ho Chi Minh once said (I am paraphrasing from
memory) "Ten Vietnamese will die for every US soldier who dies, but you [the
Americans] will tire of the dying before we do" and he was right as rain.
Taking the known total American deaths at 1600 and comparing that to total
estimated Iraqi deaths of 100,000, one arrives at a casualty ratio of 60:1
for the war as a whole. For the US to sustain a casualty ratio of 9:1 in a
combat situation initiated by the US is a clear defeat. The insurgents can
sustain such a  casualty rate forever, while the US cannot.

Here is the URL for the NYTimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/international/middleeast/19iraq.html?hp&ex
=1116561600&en=49f1e36f402e0bd0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

David McDonald






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