Today in Iraq

War News for Friday, October 22, 2004 draft Bring ‘em on: Allawi survives assassination attempt near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi soldiers, one civilian killed in Baghdad ambush. Bring ‘em on: Seven Iraqis killed, six wounded by US air strikes and artillery fire near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: US soldiers reported wounded in roadside bomb ambush near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: US Marines exchange rocket and small arms fire with insurgents near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Ten Iraqis killed, 14 wounded by two car bombs in Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Green Zone mortared in Baghdad. British troops redeployed to assist US assault on Fallujah. Liar. “As recently as January 2004, a top Defense Department official misrepresented to Congress the view of American intelligence agencies about the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, according to a new report by a Senate Democrat. The report said a classified document prepared by Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy, not only asserted that there were ties between the Baghdad government and the terrorist network, but also did not reflect accurately the intelligence agencies' assessment - even while claiming that it did.” General McPeak spanks Lieutenant AWOL. “‘Certainly, we're creating more terrorists every day than we're killing,’ said McPeak, a former chief of staff during Desert Storm. The general said disenchanted with George W. Bush's leadership lead to his becoming an independent. ‘If we had the same ratio of peacekeepers (in Iraq) ... that NATO has in Bosnia, we'd have 500,000 soldiers,’ he said. ‘We have 140,000. It's too small to get the job done and too big to be sustained.’” Insufficient troops for Lieutenant AWOL’s Operation Enduring Snafu. “The U.S. military lacks sufficient troops for post-combat ‘stability and reconstruction’ operations, and should consider adding ``significant'' numbers, a review by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board found. The report lists four main options for addressing what it calls an ‘enduring shortfall’ of troops: enlarging the military, shifting combat troops to post-combat duties, turning to the United Nations or allies for assistance, or scaling back ‘the number and/or objectives of stabilization missions.’ More, better resourced insurgents reported. “Senior American officials are beginning to assemble a new portrait of the insurgency that has continued to inflict casualties on American and Iraqi forces, showing that it has significantly more fighters and far greater financial resources than had been estimated. When foreign fighters and the network of a Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are counted with home-grown insurgents, the hard-core resistance numbers between 8,000 and 12,000 people, a tally that swells to more than 20,000 when active sympathizers or covert accomplices are included, according to the American officials. These estimates contrast sharply with earlier intelligence reports, in which the number of insurgents has varied from as few as 2,000 to a maximum of 7,000. The revised estimate is influencing the military campaign in Iraq, but has not prompted a wholesale review of the strategy, officials said.” Emphasis added. Commentary Editorial: “Iraq offers us the best lens through which to view the Bush presidency. He drove us into the war based on skewed (and possibly manufactured) intelligence. The war so far has claimed the lives of about 1,100 American soldiers and probably 15,000 Iraqi civilians and now, almost a year and a half after declaring "mission accomplished," Iraq remains in turmoil with no end in sight. His approach in Iraq underscores his basic distrust of the world community. I know he has cobbled together what he may consider a broad coalition of nations, but the fact remains that more than 90 percent of the troops are either American or British and the nations that have signed on are those that seem to want something from the United States. There are no Arab nations involved and there was significant opposition from much of the globe.” Analysis: “Bush says there won't be a draft to fight the war in Iraq while he is president. Unfortunately, his credibility on Iraq is no better than his record on campaign statements. Anyone who can read now knows that the administration's claims about WMD and about Saddam Hussein's ties to 9/11 and Al-Qaida were false. The assurances that we would be welcomed as liberators and could use Iraq's oil money to finance reconstruction were patently absurd. It is public knowledge that the administration used forged documents and phony intelligence to claim Saddam was pursuing nuclear material from Niger and specialty aluminum for centrifuges. Vice President Dick Cheney continues to claim that Saddam protected Abu Nidal, supposedly proof he supported terrorists, even though Saddam had had Abu Nidal assassinated well before the U.S. invasion. To make the same point, the administration routinely claims that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was working with Sadddam even though the evidence is that Al-Zarqawi came into Iraq after the invasion. The administration's litany of misrepresentations and outright falsehoods on Iraq is so pervasive that nothing it says can be taken at face value.” Casualty Reports Local story: Colorado Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Oregon soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Minnesota soldier wounded in Iraq.