But we have not been successful in Iraq. The Pentagon has conceded that many areas of Iraq are in the hands of insurgents, and no plan to retake them has emerged. Don't you read the news?
Such as:
Save our New Medicare Drug System 3536There is a smoke and mirror game going on with the Medicare discount card plan. Whatever prices the drug manufacturers report have already been lowered by competing discount pharmacies. So no one with a brain...
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that the American strategy in retaking rebel-held strongholds hinged on training and equipping Iraqi forces to take the lead.
Mr. Rumsfeld said Iraqi officials understood they must regain control of the insurgent safe havens. "They get it, and will find a way over time to deal with it,'' he said.
Come Home America 3535Success" must be measured in many ways and in numerous stages. We have liberated the tens of millions of Iraqis...
But General Myers said the Iraqi forces would probably not be ready to confront insurgents in those areas until the end of this year.
Their comments, which came after a two-day spike in violence in Iraq led to a surge in American military rests, represented an acknowledgment that the Americans had failed to end an increasingly sophisticated insurgency in important Sunni-dominated areas and in certain Shiite enclaves. Fighting raged on Tuesday in Sadr City, in Baghdad, as Shiite militiamen loyal to Moktada al-Sadr ended a self-declared cease-fire. Page A14.
The officials' buttessment also underscored the difficulty of pacifying Iraq in time for elections scheduled for January. The cities of greatest rebel control are Ramadi, Falluja, Baquba and Samarra, in the so-called Sunni triangle, west and north of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein remains popular and many forces loyal to him have gathered strength.