Compare and contrast: Heres the story's opening paragraph...
Deadly ambush teams struck U.S. Army targets from west to north in the arc of resistance around Baghdad, and the interim Iraqi leader called Sunday for an immediate mobilization of the old Iraqi army to help the harried Americans.
An Iraqi official on the puppet governing council thinks it might be better if the US were to recall Iraqi soldiers to serve and augment US troops in the country
American officials blame the insurgency largely on die-hard Baathists, but many here believe other Iraqis resentful of the U.S. military presence have joined in the hit-run attacks.
In an opinion-page piece in Sunday's New York Times newspaper, Allawi, head of the 25-member Governing Council for the month of October, said the decision by U.S. occupation officials to dissolve the 400,000-man Iraqi army after the war's end in April produced a "security vacuum that let criminals, die-hards of the former regime and international terrorists flourish."
Makes some sense to me, after all we are going to eventually "let" them have their country back, right?
"I don't think there's a vast swath of people out there who want to serve in the Iraqi army," said this official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Americans are slowly rebuilding a new Iraqi army, having trained only a 700-man battalion thus far.
This of course being one of those Bremerian Officials living in the lap of luxury, surrounded by air conditioners, working plumbing and most importantly 24/7/365 security. No, the Iraqis don't need much...just for us to pay the bill and leave the table. That's all.
posted by Jo Fish on 10.19.03 at 11:45 PM
Comments:
I think we need to start demanding a true accounting of the casualties of this war from Centcom. They are only reporting KIA's as casualties, when in fact the number of wounded is much higher than is being reported.
