Bush botches everything. Meanwhile, he wants Jeb or Laura to run for President? The despicable nature of Republicans becomes ever more apparent. Was there ever a more anti-American family than the Bushes.
========raq's wild west a constant thorn for U.S. troops
01 Jun 2005 12:14:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD, June 1 (Reuters) - When it comes to peace and stability in Iraq, there may be no greater obstacle to success than Anbar province, a vast region of desert and scrubland stretching west from Baghdad.
A huge sandy expanse dissected by a major highway, an oil pipeline and the Euphrates river, Anbar has been the bane of U.S. forces almost since they arrived, with its Sunni Arab people virulently opposed to the presence of foreign troops.
Despite a small, tribal population, the lawless province is the deadliest in Iraq and the heart of the insurgency hammering at the country.
Of the 1,630 U.S. troops who have died since the war began, more than 500 have lost their lives in Anbar, a higher toll than in any other area of the country, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks military deaths.
The province, which includes the cities of Falluja and Ramadi, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, is so dangerous that no journalists venture there unless escorted by U.S. forces. Even many Iraqis are too scared to go.
Masked insurgents frequently parade through the streets of Ramadi, and other towns in the Euphrates valley, showing off rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles.
Some have set up checkpoints on roads near the highway, which runs from Jordan to Baghdad, and ambushed convoys of trucks bringing in supplies. Scores of Jordanian truck drivers have been killed, including one who had his eyes ripped out.
For U.S. forces, and the Iraqi troops they are training to take over security, Anbar has two major drawbacks: its sheer size makes it incredibly difficult to police, and its population is notoriously hard to win over -- a fact that presented problems even for Saddam Hussein when he was in power.
STUBBORN AND ANGRY
Geographically, the province is a huge challenge.
Covering a third of Iraq, an area the size of the U.S. state of North Carolina, or three times the size of Belgium, Anbar reaches to Syria, Jordan and Saudia Arabia, where there are more than 800 km (500 miles) of essentially open borders.
The vast majority of Anbar's one million people -- a fraction of Iraq's 26 million population -- lives in the Euphrates valley, whose islands, lakes and palm groves provide a good hideout for guerrillas but make military offensives hard.
The rest of the province is bedouin-populated desert, but U.S. forces still have to patrol it to ensure weapons and people are not smuggled in, particularly across the Syrian frontier.
"There's no doubt that Anbar presents a lot of problems," said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman. "But it's just one of four provinces that are challenging."
Most commentators trace Anbar's virulent anti-Americanism to April 2003, when U.S. soldiers opened fire on a group of Iraqi protesters in Falluja, killing more than a dozen people.
Witnesses said the protesters, who were demonstrating against the occupation of a school by U.S. troops, were unarmed. Either way, the deaths sparked deep-seated outrage....
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