Afghanistan and Iraq rebellions widespread

Afghan City Falls Despite Troop Dispatch

The fighting in the north and another outbreak in the western province of Herat last month have been an unwanted diversion for Karzai and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan even as they battle Taliban and allied militants in the south and east.

As the situation deteriorated in the far north on Wednesday, three Afghan security men and three Taliban guerrillas were killed in clashes in a southern province in which a U.S. soldier was also wounded.

US Troops Prepare for long drive to quell two Iraq rebellions

One campaign would entail retaking cities around Baghdad, if necessary block by block against an entrenched Sunni foe. The other would involve a series of short, sharp, local strikes at small, elusive bands of Shiite militia in southern cities, continuing until the militia was wiped out. Even as commanders offered a cease-fire to Sunnis in Falluja, allowing Iraqis to try to find a peaceful solution, and postponed any assault on Shiites in Najaf and elsewhere during religious holidays, they prepared for campaigns against foes who showed unexpected discipline and ferocity this week.


Bush gambled and is losing

Last night I asked one of the senior political advisers with the council if he was depressed.

"No, I am not. I am angry," he said.

"This was all completely avoidable."

People like him feel the Americans have just played into the hands of the extremists by letting themselves be drawn into a war, or at any rate a crisis on two fronts :
- Falluja, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim and is now violently anti-American
- the Shia Muslim towns of southern Iraq .

Arab Papers urge US forces to quit

BBC - Saturday's papers across the Arab world are dominated by calls for an end to the presence of the US-led forces in Iraq.

Many suggest the situation on the ground is out of control, while some draw comparisons between the uprising in Iraq and the Palestinian intifadah.

And one London-based paper believes Washington's only concern is how Iraq will play in the US presidential election campaign.

New Zealand - The Long Ignominious Slide to Defeat in Iraq

Yet even if the “silent majority” of Iraqis remain supportive of U.S. forces, as the civilian occupation authorities claim, it may not be enough to save the American war effort in Iraq. The guerrillas know that the key to winning any guerrilla warfare is to undermine support for the war in the stronger party’s homeland. In the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, with significant support among the peoples of South Vietnam, were able to prolong the war long enough to exhaust the American public at home and prompt an eventual U.S. withdrawal. Similarly, in the American Revolution, the revolutionaries were able to eventually exhaust the British with the support of only one-third of the colonists. Thus, if even a minority of the occupied country’s population is actively hostile to the outside power, a foreign occupation can fail. If the majority supporting the outside power believes that the armed minority will be around a lot longer than the occupiers—not an illogical belief given the short attention span of past U.S. nation-building—its support, out of self-preservation, may be very lukewarm or tepid. So the silent majority may be silent indeed.

Aljazeera - Doctor reveals Falluja's horror toll

At least 450 Iraqis have been killed and more than 1000 others wounded in fighting in the city of Falluja this week, says a doctor who runs the city's main hospital.