Oil Wars

I bet some people in D.C. responsible for spinning the war in Iraq got indigestion when they read this little gem from the Sunday paper:

They just keep getting stronger.

Despite months of assurances that their forces were on the wane, the guerrillas and terrorists battling the American-backed enterprise here appear to be growing more violent, more resilient and more sophisticated than ever.

A string of recent attacks, including the execution of moderate Sunni leaders and the kidnapping of foreign diplomats, has brought home for many Iraqis that the democratic process that has been unfolding since the Americans restored Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004 has failed to isolate the insurgents and, indeed, has become the target itself.

After concentrating their efforts for two and a half years on driving out the 138,000-plus American troops, the insurgents appear to be shifting their focus to the political and sectarian polarization of the country - apparently hoping to ignite a civil war - and to the isolation of the Iraqi government abroad.

And the insurgents are choosing their targets with greater precision, and executing and dramatizing their attacks with more sophistication than they have in the past.

Strange, didn’t Cheney say recently they were in their last throes?

But the Americans concede the growing sophistication of insurgent attacks and the insurgents' ability to replenish their ranks as fast as they are killed.

"We are capturing or killing a lot of insurgents," said a senior Army intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make his assessments public. "But they're being replaced quicker than we can interdict their operations. There is always another insurgent ready to step up and take charge."

Keep this in mind the next time you hear a bogus body count. And the insurgency doesn’t have recruiting problems? Maybe U.S. Army recruiters should tag along with some of the insurgent recruiters for a few days and see how they do it. Then again, maybe its not technique. Maybe the insurgent supporters actually believe enough in what they are fighting for to join up – unlike the ChickenHawks in the U.S.

At the same time, the Americans acknowledge that they are no closer to understanding the inner workings of the insurgency or stemming the flow of foreign fighters, who are believed to be conducting a vast majority of suicide attacks. The insurgency, believed to be an unlikely mix of Baath Party die-hards and Islamic militants, has largely eluded the understanding of American intelligence officers since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government 27 months ago.

So basically they don’t know anything more about the insurgency than they knew about W.M.D. before they invaded Iraq. If they don’t know who they are I wonder how the ChickenHawks feel so certain in labeling them Islamofascists?

And in the case of the bombing in Musayyib, Iraqi officials said the gas truck, owned by the Oil Ministry, had been hijacked by insurgents on its way from Baghdad to Falluja several days before the bombing. To get to Musayyib, the truck probably passed through numerous military and police checkpoints, yet somehow, it reached its destination.

So a gas truck was hijacked and missing for three days. It passes through through military and police check points before it is finally used as a bomb to kill scores of Iraqis. Yet none of these well trained, well equipped, and highly motivated Iraqi troops bother to stop it. Kind of makes me wonder which side those Iraqi troops are really on.
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