Posted on 09/16/2005 8:25:54 PM PDT by jmc1969
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 16 - The rash of car bombings in Baghdad this week has once again thrown into debate whether the American and Iraqi counterinsurgency strategy is working.
The explosions underscored how the loosely knit and elusive networks of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former Baathists and other extremists still can recruit discontented Iraqis and foreign fighters to launch well-coordinated attacks, even as American and Iraqi forces stage offensives intended to root out the insurgents.
Before the latest round of bombings, one senior officer at the United States Central Command conceded that Mr. Zarqawi's organization remained "a very robust network" despite the heavily touted capture and killings of numerous underlings in Mosul, Tal Afar and other communities where the insurgents found refuge and even safe haven.
Commanders say they plan to squeeze the Zarqawi leadership and Iraqi insurgents in those areas. Throughout the spring and summer marines and Army forces staged raids into those same towns, confiscating weapons and killing scores of insurgents. But many fighters melted into the countryside, and there were not enough coalition troops to keep a sufficient presence in the villages.
Commanders say new offensives in Anbar Province in coming weeks will be modeled on the siege of Tal Afar, which used 8,500 American and Iraqi troops.
Some independent critics say that the unabated violence suggests the military has been focusing too much on hunting down and killing insurgents and not enough on providing security in population centers like Baghdad - safe zones that could spread like "oil spots," as Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. wrote in the current issue of Foreign Affairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How about, "Baghdad Bombings Raise Anew Questions About Zarqawi/aQ Strategy in Iraq"
We are winning this war...the Times must be so upset.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
How many times has the Times used that opening sentence or something very close to it in an article to describe the Iraq quagmire, failure, etc? Sheesh. The Gray Lady is going senile.
Yeah, right. So robust that they can't do a thing to stop anything either the Coalition or Iraqi Army do. They were annihilated at Tal Afar. All they can do "militarily" anymore is blow up Shia day-laborers.
The Times must have gone through dozens of officers before they found one to give them their headline.
I hate these ****ing traitors.
Katrina? What's that?
geeze....the NYT will run this article or a variation every few weeks.....
The Old Grey Whore seems upset that these bombings are taking place in Baghdad instead of New Yawk. I guess they'll feel cheated.
Operation in Tal Afar and Qaim does not kill terrorists in Baghdad nor in any other place. The raids in Tal Afar and Qaim only targets terrorists in Qaim and Tal Afar, nothing less and nothing more. I am not optimistic about the sharp drop of attacks with terrorists are decreasing in chunks while thinking it is the logistical problems of terrorists causing the sharp decrease of attacks, but the offensive in Tal Afar and Qaim should have decreased some of the terrorists. New York Times failed to get the news from the government of Iraq for a drop of attacks down to 55% in recent weeks.
Just more NYT junk from three of the most virolent leftists on the payroll. Move along....
The NY Times has become a parody of itself. "Raises new questions..." LOL, the NY Times tries to act as if it's hasn't raised every objection, every possible negative issue imaginable to thwart to efforts of the U.S. military on our behalf. Zarkowi isn't dead, he's just too busy behind the scenes writing new stories for the N.Y. Times to publish in their quest for "objectivity and enlightenment".
No wonder the NY Times is trying to sell subscriptions on a national level. There couldn't possibly be enough brain-dead idiots living in one city to support such a filthy rag.
The Times and their liberal cronies want the war to be lost...they hate pres. Bush more than they love their country. Why was the Balkan adventure not a 'quagmire'...we basically helped our enemy who are now busily unleashing jihad on the West.
What a phoney article this is. Unfortunately, I guarantee that the Washington Post, the LA Times, CNN, and name your own will pick up exactly this line. Simply because it appears in the New York Times. The news media is incapable of thinking for itself.
What a phoney article this is. Unfortunately, I guarantee that the Washington Post, the LA Times, CNN, and name your own will pick up exactly this line. Simply because it appears in the New York Times. The news media is incapable of thinking for itself.
Restated: Critics wonder if hiding in bunkers would be more effective than catching and killing the terrorists. Mmmmm... sounds like a plan.. gees..
Other plans put forward by critics to "Win"
One wonders if the critics cited are members of the United States Brotherhood of Al Qaeda and World Liberation supporters of the re-establishment of God's Caliphate
The dreaded double post strikes again.
Absolutely. One correction though: We won the war. It's over. It has been over for almost two years. The game is not in overtime. We're not in extra innings. Please: the Iraq war is over. And we won.
There's nothing wrong with the US strategy. The Bush administration just did not anticipate that the American MSM would side with the enemy.
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