lily
12-20-2006, 01:02 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/18/AR2006121800791.html?referrer=email
Pentagon Cites Success Of Anti-U.S. Forces in Iraq
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 19, 2006; Page A01
The Pentagon said yesterday that violence in Iraq soared this fall to its
highest level on record and acknowledged that anti-U.S. fighters have
achieved a "strategic success" by unleashing a spiral of sectarian killings
by Sunni and Shiite death squads that threatens Iraq's political
institutions.
In its most pessimistic report yet on progress in Iraq, the Pentagon
described a nation listing toward civil war, with violence at record highs
of 959 attacks per week, declining public confidence in government and
"little progress" toward political reconciliation.
"The violence has escalated at an unbelievably rapid pace," said Marine Lt.
Gen. John F. Sattler, director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, who briefed journalists on the report. "We have to get
ahead of that violent cycle, break that continuous chain of sectarian
violence. . . . That is the premier challenge facing us now."
The rapid spread of violence this year has thrown the government's future
into jeopardy, Pentagon officials said.
"The tragedy of Iraq is that in February in Samarra, the insurgents achieved
what one could call a partial strategic success -- namely, to trigger what
we've been dealing with ever since, which is a cycle of sectarian violence,
that indeed is shaking the institutions," Peter W. Rodman, assistant
secretary of defense for international security affairs, said at the
briefing.
Pentagon Cites Success Of Anti-U.S. Forces in Iraq
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 19, 2006; Page A01
The Pentagon said yesterday that violence in Iraq soared this fall to its
highest level on record and acknowledged that anti-U.S. fighters have
achieved a "strategic success" by unleashing a spiral of sectarian killings
by Sunni and Shiite death squads that threatens Iraq's political
institutions.
In its most pessimistic report yet on progress in Iraq, the Pentagon
described a nation listing toward civil war, with violence at record highs
of 959 attacks per week, declining public confidence in government and
"little progress" toward political reconciliation.
"The violence has escalated at an unbelievably rapid pace," said Marine Lt.
Gen. John F. Sattler, director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, who briefed journalists on the report. "We have to get
ahead of that violent cycle, break that continuous chain of sectarian
violence. . . . That is the premier challenge facing us now."
The rapid spread of violence this year has thrown the government's future
into jeopardy, Pentagon officials said.
"The tragedy of Iraq is that in February in Samarra, the insurgents achieved
what one could call a partial strategic success -- namely, to trigger what
we've been dealing with ever since, which is a cycle of sectarian violence,
that indeed is shaking the institutions," Peter W. Rodman, assistant
secretary of defense for international security affairs, said at the
briefing.