Marine Colonel's Iraq Report Fuels US Gloom
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Marine Colonel's Iraq Report Fuels US Gloom
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by MichaelP (activ-l)
The Guardian - Sep 11, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1870023,00.html
MARINE COLONEL'S IRAQ REPORT FUELS US GLOOM
Iraq's biggest province has suffered a total breakdown in law and order in
which al-Qaida has emerged as the dominant political force, according to
descriptions of a classified US military intelligence review reported today.
The report, by the US marine corps colonel Peter Devlin, focuses on the
vast, arid region of Anbar in the west, which contains the insurgent-held
towns of Fallujah, Ramadi and Haditha.
The Washington Post quoted military officers who had seen the report as
saying the area was "beyond repair".
"We haven't been defeated militarily, but we have been defeated politically
- - and that's where wars are won and lost," was one army officer's summary of
the review quoted by the newspaper.
The same officer concluded that there were no functioning Iraqi institutions
in the province, and that al-Qaida in Iraq, the insurgent group founded by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was Anbar's most powerful political force.
The report is believed to be the most negative one sent from the field in
Iraq.
Mr Devlin has been stationed in Anbar since February and is regarded as one
of the military's most respected and level-headed intelligence officers,
adding to concern in Washington about his comments.
"In the analytical world, there is a real pall of gloom descending," the
newspaper quoted the former defence analyst Jeffrey White as saying.
Four marines were killed in July in Anbar province, and nearly 22,000
marines are currently based in the region.
*
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