Remember how the Gipster talked tough about domestic crime the entire
time he was in office while it grew by 10% every year he was in office?
Same thing is now playing in Iraq.
Bret Cahill
~~~~~~~~~~~
From The Guardian, 1/18/06:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1688730,00.html
Official US agency paints dire picture of 'out-of-control' Iraq
? Analysis issued by USAid in reconstruction effort
? Account belies picture painted by White House
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday January 18, 2006
The Guardian
An official assessment drawn up by the US foreign aid agency depicts
the security situation in Iraq as dire, amounting to a "social
breakdown" in which criminals have "almost free rein".
The "conflict assessment" is an attachment to an invitation to
contractors to bid on a project rehabilitating Iraqi cities published
earlier this month by the US Agency for International Development
(USAid).
The picture it paints is not only darker than the optimistic accounts
from the White House and the Pentagon, it also gives a more complex
profile of the insurgency than the straightforward "rejectionists,
Saddamists and terrorists" described by George Bush.
The USAid analysis talks of an "internecine conflict" involving
religious, ethnic, criminal and tribal groups.
"It is increasingly common for tribesmen to 'turn in' to the
authorities enemies as insurgents - this as a form of tribal revenge,"
the paper says, casting doubt on the efficacy of counter-insurgent
sweeps by coalition and Iraqi forces.
Meanwhile, foreign jihadist groups are growing in strength, the report
said.
"External fighters and organisations such as al-Qaida and the Iraqi
offshoot led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are gaining in number and
notoriety as significant actors," USAid's assessment said.
"Recruitment into the ranks of these organisations takes place
throughout the Sunni Muslim world, with most suicide bombers coming
from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region."
The assessment conflicted sharply with recent Pentagon claims that
Zarqawi's group was in "disarray".
The USAid document was attached to project documents for the Focused
Stabilisation in Strategic Cities Initiative, a $1.3bn project to curb
violence in cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and Najaf,
through job creation and investment in local communities.
The paper, whose existence was first reported by the Washington Post,
argues that insurgent attacks "significantly damage the country's
infrastructure and cause a tide of adverse economic and social effects
that ripple across Iraq".
"In the social breakdown that has accompanied the defeat of Saddam
Hussein's regime criminal elements within Iraqi society have had
almost free rein," the document says.
"In the absence of an effective police force capable of ensuring
public safety, criminal elements flourish ... Baghdad is reportedly
divided into zones controlled by organised criminal groups-clans."
The lawlessness has had an impact on basic freedoms, USAid argues,
particularly in the south, where "social liberties have been curtailed
dramatically by roving bands of self-appointed religious-moral
police".
USAid officials did not respond to calls seeking comment yesterday.
.
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