Inside story of how Washington is losing its bottle (battle?,typo?)..

[hedgetrimmer]

link: http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1317722003

the article covers the u.s.' failing attempt to achieve a multifront war on terrorism... the near fatality of the US' role in the war in Afghanistan ... and the push toward "exit Iraq" before the appearance of an Afghanistan like situation emerges...

~snip~

Andrew Neil


IN NEW York the mood is buoyant as the American economy continues to purr at a satisfying rate, but 250 miles to the south in Washington DC there is increasing private gloom among those in the know that events in Afghanistan and Iraq are going badly wrong - and growing despair about what to do about it.

President Bush’s bold Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad gave US troops a much-needed fillip and he said all the right things. But behind the scenes the war on terror is going badly wrong in its two main theatres. "In both places it is worse than you think," I was warned before arriving in the US capital for a series of off-the-record briefings. The warning was accurate.

Take Afghanistan first. You don’t read or see much about it these days. The reality is grim. The Taliban is resurgent; al-Qaeda is there too, but not as relevant as it was. Attacks on aid workers are soaring; many are refusing to leave the urban areas. The warlords are back in control of the countryside, where opium production is already above pre-invasion levels. "Afghanistan is a narco-economy once more," said one intelligence analyst.

The Taliban regularly mounts attacks in the rural areas and is expected to hit urban centres with greater force. "If they knew how weak we were," confided one intelligence source, "they would have done it already." Coalition forces are confined to Vietnam-style strategic hamlets from which they emerge for operations only in great force, before returning to their enclaves. Hamid Karzai’s grip on power is tenuous..


...more...

[DS1]

1. for what it's worth, I overheard this

A guy at my college commuter lunch table, whom I admit not knowing, was talking about signing up, and he said that he knew a guy that served in Vietnam and was serving in Afghanistan and he said Afghanistan was 100 times worse.

:shrug:

[annxburns]

2. Great article ....

... thanks for posting it.

[impeach the gop]

3. this guy wants to go the afghanistan

For Gods sake, WHY. The kids brain is fried, and it ain't from drugs me thinks. He's caught up in the hysteria and the lies. May God help bring this child to his senses.

[billbuckhead]

4. What a pathetic ending to the american empire.

The PNAC crowd deserves losers like Bush, Cheney and Dumbsfeld, but I feel sorry for our troops, our allies and the Iraqis.

[Skittles]

22. it's not just them, Bill

they of course are bearing the brunt now but WE, ALL OF US, are going to pay dearly for allowing this piece of garbage to steal the White House.

[T Bone]

6. He has been propagandized

by the US media that is complicit with the BFEE.

We know what we see in the American media amounts to propaganda for the war, but 19 and 20 year olds don't. In fact it is propaganda aimed at getting THEM in support of the war and AIMED at getting THEM to sign up to fight it. Really.

Proof: all the 19 and 20 year olds willing to sign up.

[DS1]

12. Yep. it was a "not gonna happen to me" approach

and he wanted to be a teacher, what a waste.

[DS1]

15. and by the way, I go to school with a lot of other vets

(we get Tuition waived at state schools if we were enlisted during a conflit).

Not one of us likes Bush, or agree with his moronic war.

[pdove]

5. A must read!

For the actual situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thanks for sharing with us.

[Zech Marquis]

7. great artile reporting the awful truth

Oh boy, I do NOT envy anyone having to go to Iraq in the near future...no wonder * only spent 2 1/2 hours there-an longer and he just might have ben located and attacked.

[mhr]

8. Good, Short Article About On The Ground Truth!

eom

[Fovea]

9. Where is Brown and Root?

WHERE IS HALLIBURTON????

Why won't these boys step in an protect the all important resource oligarchy. Where is that Unocal flag, formerly so bravely waving?

[pdove]

16. They are in the south of Iraq.

Where they can withdraw quickly to Kuwait and Gulf.

[ibegurpard]

10. "Bring it on"

It would seem they have taken up the gauntlet thrown down by our fearless leader.

[fizzana]

11. "bottle" is not a typo.

It means 'nerve' in England.

[hedgetrimmer]

13. thank you for the 'nerve'.... i had no idea!.... n/t

[dvddrone]

14. Great article.. from outside the US, of course

Thank YOU! This was a terrific piece. Naturally, we can only get this kind of reporting from OUTSIDE the USA.

Edward R. Murrow is rolling in his grave.

Elizabeth

[JohnyCanuck]

17. Good article, but on this point author is FoS (full of shit)

No wonder the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration are in retreat: their policy of replacing Middle East tyrants with democracy and functioning economies is in grave danger of falling at the first hurdle, largely from lack if American willpower.

It was never about installing democracy in the first place. That was rhetoric to placate the public, the whore media and the cannon fodder. It was all about installing a puppet regime who would compliantly obey orders from Washington. Democracy my ass.

[pdove]

19. You are leaking top classified secret!

This revelation will damage our national security!
Where is John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge?

[Zhade]

21. Agreed. This article is full of rightwing-style rhetoric.

IN NEW York the mood is buoyant as the American economy continues to purr at a satisfying rate...

Is he sure he means the American economy...?

President Bush’s bold Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad gave US troops a much-needed fillip and he said all the right things.

Bold? The traitor is a chickenshit coward - he stayed inside tight security for a total visit of five hours! (And what the hell is a 'fillip'?)

US commanders have no real idea who they are up against, except that they are well-organised remnants of Saddam’s Ba’athist regime, supplemented with some al-Qaeda-type Islamo-fascists.

Excuse me, but - BULLSHIT. Quite a few of the attacks are from normal Iraqis who want the US military the fuck out of their country.

"Islamo-facist", by the way, is a common Freeper-esque term. I have only heard it from rightwing types.

[fedsron2us]

27. You are correct about Neils political leanings.

He is a former editor of the Murdoch owned Sunday Times. His sympathies definitely lie with the right of British politics. Allowing for these facts it should be said that he is not a fool and
he is well connected into the world of conservative politics. Therefore, when he says that the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq are bad and getting worse this is not mere liberal wishful thinking. It means the whole US policy in the Middle East is headed for catastrophe.

[Eloriel]

26. Further, they're hardly in retreat

The neo-cons, including Bush and Powell, are laying the groundwork for Iran and Syria.

They don't get it what a tremendous failure, or if they do are not letting on. It will not deter them from the rest of their plans.

And btw, yes, from the PNAC crowd, it WAS about installing "democracy" (or your desribed version of it) in that region -- so these countries would cease to be a threat to Israel, from Israel's perspective. From Bush&Co's perspective, it's about oil and world dominance.

From the article, I found this absolutely chilling:

The consequences on the ground are apparent. Until recently, US forces took 12 weeks to train Iraqis for the new police force; that has been speeded up to one week. No proper checks on individuals are being done, so trainees have been infiltrated with insurgent spies. US intelligence officers were horrified to discover recently that the insurgents even had details of Bremer’s schedule.

Eloriel

[Barrett808]

18. ‘There are now an average of 130 attacks a day on coalition forces’

So what does everybody think about this claim? I have suspected since March that they're cooking the numbers on casualties and attacks, but that's just a hunch based on past behavior.

[MetaTrope]

20. "al-Qaeda is there too, but not as relevant as it was"

Great! Does that mean they won't be able to scrape together another dozen men with box-cutters to hijack more jetliners?

[drscm]

24. Don't worry. I'm sure Saudi Arabia is more than willing

to help the next group of terrorists out as they did the last ones.

[9215]

23. Anybody have a

:puke: bucket?

President Bush’s bold Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad gave US troops a much-needed fillip and he said all the right things.


What was bold about it? You mean the political risk he took? And how does this author know this bolstered the troops? Any opinion polls on troop sentiments?

This article is garbage. He says Al Qaeda in Iraq but not one has been captured, nothing.

Then he says America lacks the "willpower" to win in Iraq. What bullshit! What is Bush going to do next blame the failures in Iraq on a lack of committment of the troops, being demoralized by press reports that everything isnt' going well.

[leftchick]

25. well this is certainly disturbing.....

<The consequences on the ground are apparent. Until recently, US forces took 12 weeks to train Iraqis for the new police force; that has been speeded up to one week. No proper checks on individuals are being done, so trainees have been infiltrated with insurgent spies. US intelligence officers were horrified to discover recently that the insurgents even had details of Bremer’s schedule.

Bush is fond of saying that America did not spend so much in men and materiel to liberate 25 million Iraqis only to succumb to a ragbag of insurgents. Yet it looks as if that is exactly what is happening. The insurgents have noted that a few very big bombs have already forced Washington to speed up its exit strategy; that can only result in even bigger bombs.>

.....think bremer has added more bodyguards to his entourage?