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H05245

Headlines : Iraq

Summary:

Despite the “stay the course” mentality, top generals in the US Armed Forces testified before a Congressional panel on the ever-growing problem of the US presence in Iraq. In the first ever public acknowledgement, these top Generals conceded that the Insurgency in Iraq is an increasing part of the problem.

Now for those of you following along at home, this is a complete contraction of not only the Bush Administrations policy of Iraq’s Insurgency but actually contradicts many of the right-wing pundits talking points that are fed through such venues as FauxNews.

Noam Chomsky made a good point along these lines: “Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it. “

[Posted By JA_Prufrock]

By Mark Mazzett
Republished from LA Times

The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation:The 149,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem.

During a trip to Washington, the generals said the presence of U.S. forces was fueling the insurgency, fostering an undesirable dependency on American troops among the nascent Iraqi armed forces and energizing terrorists across the Middle East.

For all these reasons, they said, a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops was imperative.

American officials backtracked on their expectations of what the U.S. military can achieve in Iraq months ago. But this week’s comments showed that commanders believe a large U.S. force in Iraq might in fact be creating problems as well as solutions.

“This has been hinted at before, but it’s a big shift for them to be saying that publicly,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution in Washington. “It means they recognize that there is a cost to staying just as there is a benefit to staying. And this has not really been factored in as a central part of the strategy before.”

The generals’ comments reflect an evolving outlook that senior military officials and…

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