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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (493427)	11/16/2003 2:34:01 AM
From: Orcastraiter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

More of Iron Hammer. Heavy on the hand, light on the thinking...again. America's new get-tough policy against the Iraqi insurgency reached southern Baghdad last week. The military bore down on Al-Sadia district with an AC-130 warplane. Their target was a clothing factory that the Americans believed was a staging point for rocket attacks on their bases. A mortar bombardment the following night finished the task of destroying the building. This deployment - the first since the main combat ended - was a useless display of firepower, according to Karim Medhi, a nearby resident. "We told the Americans days ago that this place was being used to attack them but they sent nobody. Then, yesterday morning, they sent patrols telling everybody to leave because the factory was going to be attacked. When they did attack, the resistance had fled. There was nobody there." The delay may have left the local people unimpressed but with US resources stretched and troops facing an average of 25 attacks a day from guerrillas, it is little surprise. Sgt Joe Justin of the 1st Armoured Division arrived at Al-Sadia to log satellite position points for the second hit on the textile factory. Khalid Dholia, the owner, pleaded at the door of the sergeant's vehicle for information on compensation. But this is not a high priority for the Americans. They have taken heavy casualties in the past week and their aim is to track down the increasingly organised armed resistance. The radio crackled. Sgt Justin looked over at his Iraqi interpreter and gave his orders: "We're going to have to move quickly on this one. We're going to hit inwards from that red car. Clear the area." As a small crowd gathered at the crossroads scrambled to get away, the interpreter shouted through loudspeakers: "This area is about to be targeted by missiles of the US Army. Please leave." Thirty minutes later eight mortar rounds hit the factory. Sgt Justin explained that the building was one of "many good places" in Al-Sadia from where Americans believe guerrillas have been attacking the US forces. Some Iraqi politicians are saying that such security operations should be put into the hands of locals. Mahmoud Othman, an independent member of the Governing Council said: "Only by having the right information and using Iraqis to set up an ambush or follow the terrorist and capture him, will these people be defeated. "The Americans don't know who is there. This is causing a gradual negative perception. It's action and reaction." Last week, Washington brought Paul Bremer, the US administrator, back to Washington briefly to draw up plans for an accelerated handover of power to Iraqi leaders. A significant beneficiary of the new approach would be Nouri Al-Badran, the new interior minister, who has complained about what appears to him to be the American military's insistence that it can beat the insurgents on its own terms. For Mr Al-Badran to take over the security role the Americans would have to support him financially. "The minister is not a happy man," said Mohammad Tawfak, a Kurdish security official. "The Americans have not recognised that he does not have the resources to do the job. He has not been able to set up a command structure across Iraq. "Security rests on the Americans recognising that terrorists are able to move throughout the country and only the Iraqi forces will be able to stop them." Breaking into the network of remnant Saddam supporters that have united with Islamic extremists to fund and execute attacks is not a task that the American military is ethnically or linguistically capable of achieving alone, claims Mr Tawfak. Capturing the former president, who is said to communicate with his followers through intermediaries but does not actively plan and authorise attacks, appears, is, in some Iraqi minds, secondary to the task of tackling guerrillas throughout the whole country. With more than 100,000 Iraqis at its command, the ministry of the interior claims that it has the manpower to take on more responsibility. However, numbers will not be enough. The new Iraqi political leadership also believe that their on-the-ground intelligence will also play a key role in helping them combat their compatriots in the burgeoning armed opposition. Yet to take the war to the resistance, the country's often bickering political parties will also need to select - and more tellingly, to close ranks around - a new national leader to head a transitional government from next June. With nine alternating presidents, the Governing Council is viewed by many as a discredited talking shop. But even those members who recognise that radical change is necessary set preconditions that will drag out for months. "We must end this miserable system of one leader every month because we need someone who can take decisions," said Ibrahim Jafari, the head of the Al-Dawa Party. telegraph.co.uk