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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (42074)	4/10/2004 12:30:23 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Time to dust off the 'Q-word' for Iraq? (Or your T word, or the VN word...and it's one, two three, what are we fighting for?) By Daniel Schorr WASHINGTON – Sunni Muslims parade the mutilated bodies of four Americans through the streets of Fallujah, Iraq, as thousands cheer. The American military response is the encirclement of the city, a nighttime curfew, and throwing up barricades across possible escape routes. But the battle around Fallujah goes on through the week, with a dozen marines killed in one day. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City - formerly Saddam City - a radical Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, whose father and two brothers were executed by Saddam Hussein, leads a militia uprising in which eight American soldiers are slain. The Shiites represent a new threat to the American-led coalition. Sunnis and Shiites fighting on the same side confront the coalition with an unexpected two-front insurgency. The Governing Council announces an arrest warrant for Mr. Sadr without saying when it will be executed. Meanwhile, the Shiite uprising spreads to other cities and towns. Ironically, the Sadr insurrection was touched off by the American suppression of his incendiary newspaper - democracy in Iraq is still a tentative thing. The fiery Sadr proclaims that he has forged links with the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hizbullah. Volunteers for the holy war are reportedly infiltrating from Syria. When President Bush said that Iraq was a central front in the war on terrorism, he may have been only premature. Eleven months after Bush proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the repatriation of 135,000 American troops is on hold and the Pentagon mumbles something about reinforcement as a contingency. Clearly the Pentagon, expecting flower-strewn streets, failed to foresee that some Iraqis might fight for liberation from their liberators. Bush insists that the June 30 date for transfer of authority to some Iraqi entity still holds. But he expresses himself in a curious way: "The intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same." How does the American public react to all this? A Pew Research poll taken after Fallujah says that 57 percent of Americans still believe that war in Iraq was the right decision. But 57 percent - the same ratio - don't think that Bush has a clear plan for ending it. Maybe it's time to dust off that unhappy word from Vietnam days - quagmire. For those too young to remember, quagmire means that, whether or not you should have been there in the first place, you're stuck there now because you can't get out without making things infinitely worse. • Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst for National Public Radio. csmonitor.com

To: lurqer who wrote (42074)	4/10/2004 12:43:52 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Abizaid has requested more forces Pamela Hess WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid has requested more forces for Iraq and was discussing plans Friday with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a senior defense official confirmed. Abizaid told reporters in Iraq he wanted several thousand more troops, and indicated they may come from the 3rd Infantry Division, which only returned from its last Iraq deployment six months ago. Pentagon officials said it was unlikely the 3rd ID would be called up so quickly. The senior defense official said Abizaid's request was too specific for a warfighting commander to make. The forces Abizaid gets will be decided on by the Joint Staff in Washington. He is supposed to limit his requests to capabilities and Washington decides, based on scheduling and skills and equipment, how to fill those requirements. Rumsfeld promised this week if Abizaid wanted more forces he would get them. Whatever the military requirement, adding troops to the force in Iraq carries with it a poltical price. More than a year ago, then Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress the occupation of Iraq would require "several hundred thousand" troops. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called that estimate "wildly off the mark." The Pentagon leaked the name of Shinseki's replacement months before his scheduled retirement, rendering him a lame duck. In his farewell speech at his retirement ceremony last year, Shinseki warned the Army was being over-committed. "Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army," he said. "Our soldiers and families bear the risk and the hardship of carrying a mission load that exceeds what force capabilities we can sustain, so we must alleviate risk and hardship by our willingness to resource the mission requirements." As Shinseki predicted, the Army is very heavily tapped. Between Iraq and Afghanistan, nine of its 10 divisions are either on deployment or have recently been relieved by other forces and are due for rest and retraining. The U.S Marine Corps has tapped roughly 70,000 Marines for duty in Iraq next year alone. The senior defense official said Marines are likely to be called on to fill in the ranks because of the strain on the Army. Abizaid asked his staff for options in Iraq earlier this week as violence in the country increased, sparked by a rebellious Shiite cleric and insurgent attacks on coalition forces. More than 200 U.S. personnel have been injured in combat in the last 24 hours, according to Defense Department statistics Some fraction of the 1st Armored Division, due to rotate out of Iraq by May, could be forced to stay for another three months, Pentagon officials said. One officer with the division in Baghdad has already had his redeployment orders slowed, he told United Press International. There are now 135,000 U.S. personnel in Iraq, some of who are overlapping as new forces rotate in to relieve others. The number of troops was supposed to drop to 105,000 by June. However, with increased violence and the potential for more as the June 30 hand over deadline nears, that target may be unrealistic. Fighting in the last week has claimed at least 40 American soldiers and Marines. U.S. Central Command said Friday two soldiers and three Marines were killed April 8 and April 9. One soldier from the 13th Corps Support Command was killed and 12 injured in an attack on their convoy near Baghdad International Airport Friday. Also Friday, one 1st Cavalry Division soldier was killed and another wounded when they were ambushed as they responded to a mortar attack near their base. Three Marines were killed April 8 in the restive Al Anbar province, the region that encompasses Falujah and Ramadi, where insurgents have stepped up operations. There have been at least 458 U.S. forces killed in action Iraq as of Friday. A total of 3,269 have been wounded in combat since the war began more than a year ago. upi.com lurqer