Andrei Kuznetsov
10th December 2003, 21:02
Operation Iron Hammer
Iraq: The War After the War
Revolutionary Worker #1222, December 14, 2003, posted at http://rwor.org/
"Since May, when major combat operations were declared over, a total of 2,227 guerrilla attacks took place in the Sunni Triangle, according to figures as of the end of last week. The rest of the country has had 1,416 attacks, most of them against occupation forces."
Boston Globe , November 29
As November 2003 started, U.S. helicopters were shot down by shoulder-launched missiles.
U.S. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld scolded those, including within his own military, who thought the occupation was in trouble: "Sitting around wringing your hands and saying, `It's horrible, it's horrible, everything is terrible' is nonsense. It isn't all terrible. There's some darn good stuff happening."
But day by day, November just kept looking worse for the U.S. occupiers. The surprise attacks by Iraqi resistance forces grew in number, power and sophistication.
The U.S. and its allies suffered more combat deaths in November than any other month. Since March 2003, 437 U.S. soldiers have died, 81 of them in November alone. In last April, when the main combat of the invasion happened, there were 73 dead.
According to Pentagon reports, by the end of November about 10,000 U.S. soldiers in this war have either been killed, wounded, injured in accidents, or become ill enough to be evacuated. This war is causing such a high ratio of massive injuries and amputations that the military is slipping these casualties into the U.S. on night-time flights to avoid media coverage.
As the myth of the "welcomed liberators" fades, and as U.S. soldiers are picked off by the resistance, the morale among occupation forces has dropped. Many soldiers and their families have demanded to know why they are still in Iraq and what they are supposedly fighting for. Self-inflicted wounds have increased among U.S. soldiers--with suicides now representing 10 percent of non-combat deaths.
In early December, Le Canard Enchaine , the French weekly known for satires and exposés, reported that French intelligence sources said over 1,700 soldiers have deserted from the U.S. military during this war--many of them not returning to duty after getting leave back in the U.S.
More of this article at http://rwor.org/a/1222/iraqwar.htm
Iraq: The War After the War
Revolutionary Worker #1222, December 14, 2003, posted at http://rwor.org/
"Since May, when major combat operations were declared over, a total of 2,227 guerrilla attacks took place in the Sunni Triangle, according to figures as of the end of last week. The rest of the country has had 1,416 attacks, most of them against occupation forces."
Boston Globe , November 29
As November 2003 started, U.S. helicopters were shot down by shoulder-launched missiles.
U.S. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld scolded those, including within his own military, who thought the occupation was in trouble: "Sitting around wringing your hands and saying, `It's horrible, it's horrible, everything is terrible' is nonsense. It isn't all terrible. There's some darn good stuff happening."
But day by day, November just kept looking worse for the U.S. occupiers. The surprise attacks by Iraqi resistance forces grew in number, power and sophistication.
The U.S. and its allies suffered more combat deaths in November than any other month. Since March 2003, 437 U.S. soldiers have died, 81 of them in November alone. In last April, when the main combat of the invasion happened, there were 73 dead.
According to Pentagon reports, by the end of November about 10,000 U.S. soldiers in this war have either been killed, wounded, injured in accidents, or become ill enough to be evacuated. This war is causing such a high ratio of massive injuries and amputations that the military is slipping these casualties into the U.S. on night-time flights to avoid media coverage.
As the myth of the "welcomed liberators" fades, and as U.S. soldiers are picked off by the resistance, the morale among occupation forces has dropped. Many soldiers and their families have demanded to know why they are still in Iraq and what they are supposedly fighting for. Self-inflicted wounds have increased among U.S. soldiers--with suicides now representing 10 percent of non-combat deaths.
In early December, Le Canard Enchaine , the French weekly known for satires and exposés, reported that French intelligence sources said over 1,700 soldiers have deserted from the U.S. military during this war--many of them not returning to duty after getting leave back in the U.S.
More of this article at http://rwor.org/a/1222/iraqwar.htm