You figure it out:
"Intelligence calls Iraq's government precarious; GOP senator urges reduction in troop levels" by Farah Stockman/Boston Globe August 24, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The nation's intelligence director released a grim assessment of the progress in Iraq yesterday, including the prediction that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be unable to broker reconciliation between the country's warring factions in the coming months and will instead become increasingly vulnerable to challenges to his own leadership.
An unclassified summary of key judgments in the report, citing growing criticism in Iraq of Maliki's rule states:
"The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months. Broadly accepted political compromises required for sustained security, long-term political progress, and economic developments are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift."
The National Intelligence Estimate report, an update of a similar assessment on Iraq released in January, highlighted some recent successes there since President Bush ordered an increase in the US troop presence. The estimate, compiled by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, cited what it said was a recent drop in the number of attacks on civilians and an expansion of the US alliance with Sunni tribes in the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq.
[Remember that.]
But the report also outlined a host of looming problems -- including the likelihood that bloody battles between rival Shi'ite factions over political turf and control of the country's vast oil reserves will increase as US forces relinquish control of the provinces, and the possibility that the Sunni tribes the United States is arming in the fight against Al Qaeda could turn against Iraq's central government.
The report, however, predicted that the belief that lawmakers will soon force US troops to leave Iraq will only create more violence, fear, and uncertainty, as Iraqis seek to protect themselves from their enemies and competing factions battle for the upper hand.
The report said: "Perceptions that the coalition is withdrawing probably will encourage factions anticipating a power vacuum to seek local security solutions that could intensify sectarian violence and intra-sectarian competition."
Yesterday, as Bush continued his monthlong vacation in Crawford, Texas, deputy White House press secretary Gordon Johndroe told reporters that the updated judgments in the National Intelligence Estimate "show that our strategy has improved the security environment in Iraq." He cited the report's assessment that Iraq has made modest improvements in economic output and in forming a budget.
[We aren't withdrawing, and we aren't leaving, folks.
Getting a draft is what we are gonna get]
Despite the somber assessments, the report gives the Bush administration some ammunition in the fight to maintain a large and active troop presence in Iraq. It states that paring down the troops' mission to focus solely on targeting Al Qaeda in Iraq -- as some of Bush's critics have suggested -- would "erode security gains achieved thus far." It also predicted further improvement in securing the country, as long as US troops continue "robust counterinsurgency efforts."
The intelligence officials said yesterday that the new US alliance with Sunni tribesmen could produce the foundation of a localized, "bottom-up" reconciliation effort, if Shi'ite leaders, including Maliki, use it as an opportunity to reach out to Sunnis. But the report and the intelligence officials also said the US-Sunni alliance could backfire if Sunnis decide to turn against Maliki's government, an admission that US officials rarely make publicly.
[Why would we care?
The newspapers aren't reporting it, but everyone one knows that the former PM and US stooge Allawi has had the lobbying firm run by ex-RNC chair Haley Barbour appointed by the administration to get a new start.
Malaki is toast, as the WH keeps lying.
Meanwhile, see if you can make sense of this piece:]
"32 killed in fight after Qaeda attack in Iraq village; Residents fought aggressors but 15 are kidnapped" by Megan Greenwell/Washington Post August 24, 2007
BAGHDAD -- An insurgent attack yesterday on a Sunni sheik who has cooperated with US forces escalated into an extended street battle involving the sheik's militiamen, local villagers, and Iraqi forces, according to police and the US military. Thirty-two people were killed and 15 kidnapped, police said.
Residents of a village near Baqubah, 35 miles north of Baghdad, apparently heard the initial commotion and took up their weapons to fight the attackers, who were members of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, said Lieutenant Colonel Michael Donnelly, a spokesman for the US military units north of Baghdad.
Donnelly said: "The villagers came together and started fighting off Al Qaeda in Iraq. It's another sign of people not putting up with [the group's violence]."
Police gave a similar account of the villagers' reaction.
The sheik was killed and his mosque was destroyed, Donnelly said.
[Wait a minute. A destroyed mosque? Something a stinking!]
The dead also included village residents, insurgents, and Iraqi security personnel, police said, while the 15 people kidnapped by the insurgents appeared to be women and children.
The attack was the latest in a string targeting Sunni leaders who have struck alliances with US troops to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq. In recent months, US commanders have granted significant powers to scores of Sunni militias -- some of which are believed to have previously battled US troops -- as part of a new strategy against the insurgent group.
The sheik who was killed yesterday was reported to have been a local leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a Sunni militia that was founded as part of an effort to force a US withdrawal from Iraq but which lately has come to consider Al Qaeda in Iraq as its real enemy.
Since June, US commanders have announced alliances with the brigades in many parts of the country.
The attack underscores a key difficulty for US forces in maintaining the support of Sunni militias, which generally oppose Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and whose long-term goals remain unclear. As more Sunni leaders are attacked, American commanders are finding it increasingly difficult to persuade others to join the effort.
[WTF?!
MORE are ATTACKED and INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT to PERSUADE?
I thought we were running "Al-CIA-Duh" out of there?
I thought arming the Sunni tribes was a success?
So which is it, lying MSM?]
Donnelly said that no American troops were in the area when the attack began in the early morning, but that commanders sent a unit to stabilize the situation later in the day.
The military also announced yesterday that it had completed an offensive in Diyala Province. Twenty-six Al Qaeda in Iraq members were killed and 50 villages were cleared of insurgents, the military reported."
[Oh, yeah, about that U.S. murder, almost forgot.
See how they write this shit, readers?]
