"Beleaguered" Americans and a FUBAR Iraq

It's been interesting seeing the news media come around the clusterfuck called "Iraq". Note the last paragraph of this CBS News story:

Power grid sabotage could end up causing a cholera epidemic — the last thing the beleaguered Americans need.

"Beleaguered". It's definitely an accurate adjective.

Mass sabotage has brought the nation's critical infrastructure to a grinding halt, while repair crews are assassinated if they attempt to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, as tempers flare in the festering heat (check out Baghdad's 10-day forecast), our soldiers die.

U.S. Special Forces Soldier Killed in Baghdad

One American special forces soldier was killed and eight others wounded on Thursday by hostile fire in southwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed by Iraqi Ambushes

Bomb and grenade ambushes Thursday signaled increasing anti-American resistance in Iraq, despite U.S. claims of mopping up opposition. One American soldier and two Iraqi civilians were killed, and two American soldiers were missing.

The fresh violence came a day after a U.S. Marine was killed while responding to an ambush in which three other Americans were wounded.

That alone is at least three dead, and possibly five in the past 24 hours alone. The military is "downplaying" the deaths:

A U.S. military spokesman, Maj. William Thurmond, played down this week's violence as a "spike" and not a trend. Thurmond said the spate of ambushes could be a response to recent U.S. raids on Baath Party strongholds.

The US (and UK as well) are definitely "beleaguered". The more the press acknowledges reality, the quicker the US public will come around to assigning blame for this fiasco.

Bush lied, people died. And they're still dying.

Update: Remember Afghanistan? That war we won a long time ago? Well, we lost another one of our boys there today.

Posted June 26, 2003 11:55 AM | Comments (177)