CounterPunch
by Patrick Cockburn

07/21/05

But there is a price to be paid in blood for keeping in power those responsible for past disastrous decisions in Iraq. It makes it much more difficult to seek a way out of the savage war that is now engulfing that country. This is because past policies have to be portrayed as successful when they were dismal failures. The true terrible state of Iraq is glossed over. ... The need to produce a rosy and quite false picture of Iraq makes it difficult for the US -- with Britain trotting along behind -- to produce effective policies. Washington has never admitted to itself that since the summer of 2003 Sunni and Shia Iraqis have both loathed the US occupation. The much-resented presence of US troops in Iraq has helped fuel the insurgency and tainted Iraqi governments as puppets of the US. In the short term it should be a priority to get American soldiers out of the cities and towns in order to reduce daily friction...

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick07212005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp