When it comes to understanding the resilience of the Iraqi insurgency, our military commanders can’t get it right. It’s not that easy to understand just how resilient and persistence an embedded, guerrilla like terrorist force can be.

On the other hand Bush and Cheney simply lie about the status of the insurgent forces because it is politically expedient for them to do so. Their deceptive and misleading statements have the same stench as their deceptive reasons for the need for invasion.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004Sep21.html
AT U.N. BUSH CITES HEADWAY IN IRAQ'I Am Optimistic We'll Succeed,' He Says
By Dana Milbank and Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 22, 2004; Page A01

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 21 -- President Bush brushed aside concerns about violence and disorder in Iraq and told world leaders assembled here on Tuesday that THE COUNTRY IS MAKING PROGRESS AGAINST INSURGENTS.
Bush's upbeat assessment of world affairs in general and Iraq in particular contrasted sharply with assessments of diplomats and world leaders gathered for the annual meeting
of the U.N. General Assembly. While others lamented spreading violence and a breakdown of the rule of law, Bush asserted that times have improved.



http://washingtontimes.com/national/...4401-8720r.htm
November 19, 2004

U.S. DECLARES INSURGENCY "BROKEN"
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The top Marine officer in Iraq declared yesterday that victory in the battle of Fallujah has "broken the back" of the Iraqi insurgency, while another commander in the war on terror said Osama bin Laden is all but cut off from his terrorist operatives.

The twin statements declare success on the two main war fronts — Iraq and Afghanistan — where the U.S. military is fighting a deadly insurgency and trying to create lasting democracies.

Lt. Gen. John Sattler, who commands the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that 11 days after invading Fallujah, the one-time insurgent stronghold is secure, but not yet safe. His ground troops were carrying out a "search-and-clear phase," he said

Based on intelligence that shows Fallujah was an enemy command center, Gen. Sattler asserted, "We feel right now that we have ... broken the back of the insurgency, and we have taken away this safe haven."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2005Mar1.html

INSURGENCY IS WEAKENING, ABIZAID SAYS

Stronger Security Force Is Predicted
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A05

Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said yesterday that the strength of the Iraqi insurgency is waning as a result of momentum from elections, and he predicted Iraqi security forces would be leading the fight against insurgents in most of Iraq by the end of 2005.

While acknowledging that Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency gained intensity from November through January compared with the previous year, Abizaid told a Senate panel that the insurgents' failure to disrupt Jan. 30 elections marked a turning point and indicated declining popular support.



Unlike are military commanders who simply failed to estimate insurgent strength, Vice President Dick Cheney produced a deliberately misleading observation about the strength of the Iraqi insurgency. By the time Cheney came up with this little gem of a statement it was well known that 1285 Iraqi civilians had been killed by terrorists in April and May alone. Yet this SUB-AMERICAN persisted in lying to the American people about the strength and effectiveness of the insurgency. This isn’t much different than when he deliberately misled Americans about Iraq’s nuclear threat before the invasion.


http://www.wkbw.com/archives.aspx?Pa...N&StoryID=3753

INSURGENCY IN IRAQ IN 'LAST THROES', CHENEY SAYS

May 31, 2005 - WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes," Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office.
In a wide-ranging interview Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Cheney cited the recent push by Iraqi forces to crack down on insurgent activity in Baghdad and reports that the most-wanted terrorist leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been wounded.

The vice president said he expected the war would end during President Bush's second term, which ends in 2009.

"I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time," Cheney said. "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."



IN CONTRAST TO CHENEYS UTTER CRAP:
General Abizade’s more honest and reasonable oberservation about the strength of the insurgency proved just what a whack job Cheney is. Abizade honestly recognized the civilian death toll after the Iraqi elections and re-assessed his earlier, more optimistic estimates of insurgent resilience.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/...sfeld.iraq.ap/
GENERAL: INSSURGENY NOT WEAKENING
CNN Thursday June 24,2004

Abizaid told the panel: "I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago." As to the overall strength of the insurgency, Abizaid said it was "about the same" as six months ago.
"We see good progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan... But we are realistic. And we know that great change is often accompanied with violence. We are not trying to paint a rosy picture," Abizaid said.
Told by Levin, the committee's senior Democrat, that his assessment directly contradicted Cheney, Abizaid said: "I don't know that I would make any comment about that other than to say there's a lot of work to be done...I gave you my opinion."



We will continue to be given more contradictory estimates about the increasing and waning strength of the insurgency. We will also be given contradictory information about the effectiveness of the indigenous Iraqi forces now undergoing training. I don’t believe this will be a result of the generals’ deliberately attempting to mislead us. The fact is, it’s probably very difficult to make assessments of this kind.

But either way, Bush and Cheney will lie whenever it’s expedient for them to do so.

The track record shows that we can no longer rely on assessments from the politicians or the military alone. We must set a goal of training roughly 200,000 indigenous Iraqi forces and begin evacuation of our troops soon.

Ultimately we are not in Iraq to fight terrorists. We are in Iraq to train the Iraqi troops to fight the terrorists and defend their own country. Iraq must learn quickly to work out it’s own solutions on all fronts. They must shoulder this responsibility without us.