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The Nation Blog Posted 01/22/2007 @ 10:47pm
Iraqi Millstone Round Bush's Neck Helena Cobban
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But possibly the worst recent Iraq news for the Prez came from the Shiite holy city of Karbala where on Saturday, some very bold and well-organized anti-US insurgents wearing what looked like US uniforms drove a sizeable convoy of SUVs right into a joint US-Iraqi base, and hunted down the US service members there, killing five and wounding three, before the whole convoy roared right out into the sunset again, unimpeded.
The base in question was a "Provincial Joint Coordination Center" (PJCC), where US troops were co-deployed alongside colleagues from the Iraqi "security forces." Very evidently, what happened there Saturday was a massive breach of security. And the fact the assailants were able to drive their multiple vehicles out of the compound after the attack without incident indicates -- perhaps even more strongly than the fact that they were able to get into it so easily -- that they likely had a number of confederates among the Iraqi security personnel working there.
Which presumably was a major reason why the US authorities in Baghdad did not want to divulge the details of the attack too widely. (Their brief press statement about the incident is here.)
Bush's new "surge" plan for Greater Baghdad -- and the whole of the US counterinsurgency effort in Iraq -- depends crucially on effecting a large increase in the numbers of US soldiers co-deployed with members of the "Iraqi security forces."
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Full at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=159595