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Iraq Bloodbath: ‘Imminent US Defeat,’ Says A Serving Army Officer
While the US President and the American Congress play their own games on the subject of withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq, the everyday bloodbath continues unabated in the strife-torn country.
“A car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala as the streets were packed with people heading for evening prayers, killing at least 58 and wounding scores near some of the country’s most sacred shrines, reports the Associated Press.
“Separately, the U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American troops, including three killed Saturday in a single roadside bombing outside Baghdad.
“The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died this month (April) and at least 3,346 who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
“Saturday’s bombing was the deadliest attack in Iraq since April 18, when 127 people were killed in a car bombing near the Sadriyah market in Baghdad — one of four bombings that killed a total of 183 people in the bloodiest day since a U.S.-Iraq security operation began in the capital more than 10 weeks ago.”
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Meanwhile a senior serving US army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling, said “the US had repeated the mistakes of Vietnam and so faced defeat in Iraq”, reports the BBC.
“Such criticism from a serving officer is rare, analysts say, although several retired generals have spoken out.
“Lt Col Yingling’s remarks come a day after the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, described the situation in Iraq as ‘exceedingly complex and very tough’.
Writing in the US Armed Forces Journal, Lt Col Yingling says that “Iraq’s grave and deteriorating condition in 2007 offers diminishing hope for an American victory and portends risk of an even wider and more destructive regional war.”
US military spokesman Lt Col Christopher Garver in Iraq told the Associated Press news agency “that Lt Col Yingling had written expressing ‘his personal opinions’. ‘We of Multinational Force Iraq are focused on executing the mission at hand,’ he said.”
A Los Angeles Times report highlights the continued insecurity the Baghdad residents face despite claims tall claims made by the authorities about returning normalcy.
“Mohammed Azzawi, his brother and a friend faced a bedeviling choice as they neared their home in one of Baghdad’s deadliest neighborhoods: They could take a road recently closed by U.S. troops where motorists jump the curb and drive on the sidewalk, or an open route haunted by abductions and killings.
“It is the sort of dilemma Iraqis encounter every day as they navigate a city with increasing numbers of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, but still dominated by danger and uncertainty.
“More than two months after the United States and Iraq launched a new plan to stanch the capital’s violence, life for residents has become a game of choices dictated by concrete barriers, traffic-choking checkpoints and the latest market bombing…”
