The three largest cities is Iraq are Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra. It turns out that none of them have, ever, in the last five years since Saddam was deposed, been under the control of the Iraqi government or the American occupiers. It turns out that none of the other cities in Iraq are under coalition control, either.
The recent coalition military incursions into Basra, Sadr City and now Mosul, have not changed the situation, although they have produced satisfyingly huge civilian casualty counts.
3 comments:
This is what I can't figure out. The US relies on airstrikes and helicopter gunships so much. Everytime we hit a target we are causing injury and death to civilians. The freedom fighters we target are long gone, of course.
This pushes the civilians away from the US and its Quisling governments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The people hate us and want us to leave.
Actually, much of Baghdad now is secure, and 70% of Basra is now under Iraqi government control. JAM and AQI were heavily entrenched so it takes time to flush them out.
If we listened to McCain back in August 2003, he said that a full-scale counterinsurgency strategy was needed with more troops, but Bush and the right derided that as "defeatist." Turns out he was correct.
Post a Comment