Insurgency "In The Last Throes"?

Dr. Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush Administration are promoting the view that the Iraqi insurgency is in the final "throes". Yet no evidence exists to prove this to be true. Insurgent attacks across Iraq have now increased to about 70 per day. Just today new violence with three car bomb attacks killed 18 more people. Another American soldier was killed by a car bomb. Yesterday 23 people at a popular Baghdad restaurant were killed in a attack. In the normally far safer Kurdish held North, another attack took 20 lives. Entire villages are controlled by insurgent or antiU.S. forces outside of Baghdad. A massive U.S. effort to clear insurgents pouring in from the Syrian border, means that insurgents are not only coming in from this direction, but from the Iranian border side as well. More and more Iraq is becoming like Afghanistan, where the government only has strong control over the capitol city, Kabul, with Taliban supporters or forces strong or in control in much of the countryside.

The role of the Secretary of State seems to often be that of a "cheerleader" for the absurd and failing Bush Administration policies. Before the start of the Iraq War, Dr. Rice used the image of a "mushroom cloud" to frighten American's to support the drum beat to the Iraq War. It was another way in which American opinion was shaped to create support for the war.

The continued American presense only acts as a magnet for more insurgent training and more violence in Iraq. And Congress unfortunately added $500 million in a military spending bill for permanent military bases in Iraq. But this continued presense only self-perpetuates this war. The people of Iraq need to tend to their own defense as soon as possible.

Americans should support the Kucinich-Jones troop withdrawal resolution. Otherwise the cycle of violence will only worsen. Only 12% of Iraqis now have electrical power. Hunger is increasing, as is poverty. And daily violence takes more and more lives. The insurgency is hardly in the last "throes". The Kucinich-Jones resolution is the only hope to improve the situation in Iraq. The current policy benefits no one but the insurgents.