A rocket-propelled grenade strikes from out of nowhere, incinerating an American Humvee military transport on a highway near Baghdad. One US soldier killed, three wounded.
When the explosion is heard, a group of Iraqi civilians nearby gathers at the site of the smoldering aftermath, reports CNN’s Harris Whitbeck. When they realise it was an attack on a US military force, they erupt in cheers, and that cheering lasts several minutes.
Another day in Iraq, another dead US soldier.
Since US President George Bush declared an end to major conflict in Iraq on May 1, 49 American troops have died in hostile encounters, and hundreds more have been wounded. The total military death toll, including accidents and friendly fire, stands at 163 — 16 more than the first Gulf War in 1991.
”I don’t know what I’m doing here, and I don’t like what’s happening in this city,” US Reserve infantryman Eric Holt tells the UK’s Independent newspaper in Baghdad.
”You know, there are a whole lot of our girls getting pregnant just so they can go home quick.”
It was hoped after the slayings of Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical sons last Tuesday that attacks on US forces would tail off. That has not been the case, however, with 10 US soldiers killed since Uday and Qusay were gunned down: one of the deadliest weeks for the Americans since the invasion was launched.
Many US troops say they are not surprised by increasing attacks or displays of anger among Iraqis, the Washington Post reports. While no official statistics exist, Iraq’s civilian death toll since the war began March 20 is an estimated to be between 6 000 and 7 800.
”Wouldn’t you be mad if they invaded your country?” James McNeely, a member of the US National Guard, asks a Post reporter.
”I want to go home.”
Chaos still reigns large in Iraq. Besides the lack of security, problems with water and electricity remain, unemployment is rampant, and as Jonathan Steele of The Guardian newspaper points out, there is the ”daily indignity of seeing foreign troops on their streets”.
With the occupation costing $3,9-billion a month, Iraq being liberated from Saddam’s evil grip, and no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in sight, the justification for occupying Iraq is also being questioned more and more back in the US.
According to a July Washington Post-ABC News poll, 40% of Americans say the war with Iraq was not worth fighting, up from 27% in late April. The same poll found 52% believe US casualties in Iraq have reached an ”unacceptable” level.
Criticism of the occupation is not only coming from Democrats eagerly seeking to score political points with the 2004 election approaching.
”Let us leave Iraq to the Iraqis,” said US House Representative John Duncan, a Republican from Tennessee, in a commentary. ”The Iraqi people may have hated Saddam Hussein, but they do not want Americans or our puppets running their country either. Let us bring our troops home before more and more of them are murdered.”
Republican pundit Pat Buchanan says the US government is playing a dangerous game with its ”pre-emptive strike” foreign policy. He says the Bush administration is on the brink of what he calls ”imperialist overstretch”.
”President Bush does not have the surplus of resources — military, strategic, financial, political — to hold the empire,” Buchanan wrote recently. ”Either President Bush starts discarding imperial responsibilities we cannot carry, and bringing the troops home, or his successor will.”
The Bush regime, however, insists it will not retreat from Iraq, but admits a nasty guerrilla war is underway, and the loss of more American lives is inevitable.
A Pentagon advisory panel recently reported back after visiting Iraq.
”Given the daunting array of needs and challenges, and the national security imperative for the United States to succeed in this endeavour, the United States needs to be prepared to stay the course in Iraq for several years,” the panel’s report stated.
Richard Perle, a leading advisor in the American administration, recently told reporters in Moscow that 30 000 Saddam supporters remain in Iraq who must be dealt with before the US can go home.
”It would be irresponsible to leave while 30 000 of the most brutal supporters (of Saddam) are sabotaging the country,” Perle says.
But another Republican congressman says it’s time for America to steer clear of external conflicts and strife.
”Avoiding entangling alliances and staying out of the internal affairs of other nations is the policy most conducive to peace and prosperity,” said Representative Ron Paul from Texas.
”Hopefully, we will soon seriously consider the foreign policy approach advocated by our Founding Fathers, a policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other nations.”
Adds Congressman Duncan, ”I believe our Founding Fathers would be shocked if they knew what we were doing today.” – Sapa-DPA