Failure announced

The “war on terror” is a failure, according to the US State Department:

The US state department acknowledged yesterday that there is a risk of Iraq becoming a safe haven for terrorists three years after the invasion of the country.

The warning is contained in the state department’s annual country reports on terrorism. The report, which suggests an increase in terrorist attacks worldwide, appears to undermine repeated claims by President George Bush that the US is winning the “war on terrorism”.… 

It all depends how we judge failure, of course. Perhaps this proves US resolve in Iraq:

Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said. At least 17 people, including an American soldier, were killed Saturday in fighting.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi, one of the country’s two vice presidents, estimated on Friday that 100,000 Iraqi families — 90 percent of them his fellow Shiites — had fled their homes to escape attacks by rival religious sects.

Abdul-Mahdi’s estimate was higher than any offered so far by Iraqi officials, who have placed the figure at about 15,000 families, or about 90,000 people.… 

Or maybe this perspective from an individual who has worked directly with US troops:

The U.S. military’s lack of understanding about Iraqi culture helped create the conditions for the insurgency that U.S. forces face there, according to a military adviser who has written a new book about the insurgency.

Between November 2003 and September 2005, professor Ahmed Hashim worked with U.S. troops in Iraq.

Hashim, who teaches at the Naval War College, says he was surprised by how little the U.S. military understands about the culture, or “human terrain,” of Iraq. That includes “societal networks, relations between tribes and within tribes, kinship ties… what is it people are fighting for?”… 

Any way you look at it, the “Coalition” has failed in Iraq.

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