With Each Attack, U.S. Image in Iraq Erodes
More than six months after the war began, loyalists to the former regime of Saddam Hussein have found a multitude of ways to create a sense of insecurity in Iraq, despite the efforts by U.S.-led coalition forces and civilian workers to stabilize the situation.
The loyalists have assassinated politicians, most recently Aqila Hashimi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who died Thursday of her gunshot wounds. They are believed to have been involved in suicide bombings, including one at the United Nations' Baghdad headquarters last month that killed chief envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
They have kept up a daily drumbeat of attacks on coalition forces — one American was killed Friday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in the northern city of Kirkuk, and another died in a fire in Tikrit, Hussein's hometown. The deaths bring the U.S. military toll to 308, more than half of those since President Bush declared major combat over May 1.
A climate of apprehension pervades many areas of the country. Those Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition routinely receive threats; every day, U.S. forces are targeted by attacks that injure if not kill; and everyone living in Iraq is regularly hamstrung by sabotage of power stations and oil pipelines.
Though the Americans are not necessarily blamed for specific attacks, many Iraqis hold them responsible for the instability.
Seems this administration is so busy looking for the inanimate WMDs, that they never factored the human ones into their strategy.
