Senior Commander In Iraq: US Is Not Strong Enough To Defeat Insurgency...

A senior American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations are "stifling" the insurgency in western Anbar province but are not strong enough to defeat it.

Marine Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer has told the press that he has enough soldiers to accomplish what he called his main mission: training Iraqi security forces.

"For what we are trying to achieve out here I think our force levels are about right," he said. Even so, he said the training of Iraqi soldiers and police had not progressed as quickly as once expected.

"Now, if that mission statement changes — if there is seen a larger role for coalition forces out here to win that insurgency fight — then that is going to change the metrics of what we need out here," he added.

So let's get this straight. Their mission is to train Iraqis, not to win the fight against the insurgents? So why do Bush and other right wing retards keep claiming that the US is winning it's battle against the "terrorists"?

Apparently, that's not even part of the plan.

In the long run, the war will not be won on the battlefield, Zilmer said. The outcome will be determined by the Iraqis' ability to compromise on their political goals, accommodate their sectarian differences and demonstrate to ordinary people that a democratic central government can serve their needs.

"Until those things change, until those long-term effects are realized, then trying to solve the insurgency out here is going to be problematic," he said.

I've never heard Bush say that defeating "terrorists" was no longer part of the plan in Iraq, but Zilmer was quite specific:

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Devlin report concluded that Anbar's political and security situation will continue to deteriorate unless it gets a major infusion of aid and substantially more U.S. troops.

Zilmer would not discuss specifics of the Devlin report, but said he did not want more U.S. troops as long as his mission did not include defeating the insurgency.

So there we have it. Straight from the horse's mouth. They are not even trying to defeat the insurgency.

Am I the only person who feels they are being less than straight with everyone?

Tags: Iraq, US, insurgency, defeat, Zilmer,