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changabula
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War in Iraq lost?

Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatest strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election -- a charge Reid said did not warrant a response.
...

"It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage," Cheney said.

...

Reid, who says the war in Iraq is "lost," likened Bush to President Lyndon Johnson, saying Johnson ordered troop escalations in Vietnam in an attempt "to save his political legacy" only to watch U.S. casualties climb steadily.

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2007-4-25 06:49 AM

mengzhi (mengzhi)
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They won in Vietnam too .

Hi there Chang,

I think the Americans should be congratulated for winning the Iraqi war. " Mission Accomplished " spelled it all out , didn't it ? With Dubya and Dick steadfastly and stubbornly insisting that they have won , who are we mere mortals to argue, I ask you ?

I do have some slight reservations though . What are all those carnage and car bombs going off doing in Baghdad ? I was told that it is a place of milk and honey, where a thousand desert flowers bloom. Where do the conquering heroes from the land-of-the-free ( US ) and land-of-the-brave ( Australia ) need to sneak into the liberated land in the dark , like so many thieves in the night. They come and they go unannounced each time, bypassing and denying the locals' intense desire to line the streets and cheer those who have delivered to them democracy, justice and liberty. It is unfair, unjust and ill-mannered .

If the White House and the Pentagon say the US has won , that is how it should be. Then why are the boys and girls not coming home then? It is curiouser and couriouser , isn't it Chang ?

2007-4-25 08:44 AM

caringhk (O Sweetie&Me go laojia. ..)
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QUOTE:

Originally posted by changabula at 2007-4-25 06:49
Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatest strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election -- a charge Reid said did not warrant a re ...

They lost the war both in the US & Irag so one cld win politically

but pity the sacrifice of lives by the soldiers.....

2007-4-25 10:17 AM

changabula
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QUOTE:

Originally posted by mengzhi at 2007-4-25 08:44
Hi there Chang,

I think the Americans should be congratulated for winning the Iraqi war. " Mission Accomplished " spelled it all out , didn't it ? With Dubya and Dick steadfastly and s ...

mengzhi:

A senator is now saying that the war is lost! Here is a bit of the article:

Leading Democrat in Senate Tells Reporters, ‘This War Is Lost’

WASHINGTON, April 19 — As Congressional Democrats sought to reconcile their differences and send an Iraq spending bill to the White House, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said Thursday that “this war is lost,” a stark assessment that Republicans argued would demoralize American troops fighting in Iraq.

Full article from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/2 ... rry&oref=slogin

2007-4-25 03:31 PM

tekvicious (Hybrid Theory)
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Hmmm..the actual war was won..and quickly. It's the follow-up that they have loused up so badly.
They are seriously not prepared for the type of desperate measures that the more extreme factions will go to.

2007-4-25 09:31 PM

mengzhi (mengzhi)
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How dumbed down can you get ?

Tek the Trickster,

"...the actual war was won....and quickly. It is the follow-up that they have loused up so badly ." stammered and spluttered the professor. Duh prof. war is not over till the fat lady sings. It is not over till it is over, the end. Duh .

It is like leading at the 20 meter mark in a 100 meter dash . No darn good, buddy boy. No one gets rewarded for leading at any stage except at the tape. You are not one of the " experts " at the Pentagon Think Tank ,are you ?

2007-4-25 09:45 PM

tekvicious (Hybrid Theory)
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Warfare has it's own definition. Although war is a conflict, all forms of conflict are not warfare.
You know exactly what I mean, but thank you for playing devils advocate.

2007-4-25 10:11 PM

changabula
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QUOTE:

Originally posted by tekvicious at 2007-4-25 21:31
Hmmm..the actual war was won..and quickly. It's the follow-up that they have loused up so badly.
They are seriously not prepared for the type of desperate measures that the more extreme factions w ...

Well, is the war over?

2007-4-26 05:14 AM

mengzhi (mengzhi)
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Wish you have two mouths ?

Just as we think we have seen the best in squirm, slide and slither, along came tek the twister to burst that bubble. He can contort, distort and report that " black " is " white ". No mean feat ! Having been shown his embarassing faux pas / gaffe saying that the Americans have already WON the war, he is now saying " wars may be conflicts but not all conflicts are war ". Well, that is different then . How shrewed and slimey is that ? Except the C-IN-C himself has declared on numerous occasions that " We are at war !!". Now you are in a quandry my boy. Who do you believe now ? The invincible CINC or your own good self ? War or no-war is the question. Please explain.

2007-4-26 12:27 PM

#10

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the war in iraq supposed to be lost as a end when it started by bush 4years ago.
invading an other sovereign state is so disgusting crime us made.
u reap what u sow

2007-4-26 12:32 PM

#11

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i'd like to know if the americans still paying iraqi soldiers with us dollars.

2007-4-30 04:53 PM

#12

changabula
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Bush, Cheney see Iraq as '51st state'

Former Sen. Max Cleland says the Bush administration sees Iraq as "the 51st state."

Appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Cleland, a decorated and disabled war veteran, said of Bush, "It is this president that vetoed full funding of the war, actually more money for the troops that he requested, but he rejected the exit strategy. ... It is time for an exit strategy."

Cleland also said after hearing a clip of Vice President Cheney, "This administration for five years has tried to make Iraq the 51st state. It won't work. It belongs to the Iraqis. ... We can't micromanage Iraq."

Watch the account:

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2007-6-5 11:56 PM

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shelleybelly
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QUOTE:

Originally posted by caringhk at 2007-4-25 10:17

They lost the war both in the US & Irag so one cld win politically

but pity the sacrifice of lives by the soldiers.....

US won't say they loss..what a shame to speak out that!

2007-6-6 01:01 AM

#14

changabula
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Iraq: British officer's email

* Newsnight
* 6 Jun 07, 10:06 PM

Newsnight received the following email from a serving British Army captain with experience in various theatres including Iraq. We know his identity but have withheld it at his request. Watch Mark Urban's report on morale among soldiers serving in Iraq here.

"I am a serving British Army officer with operational experience in a number of theatres. I am concerned regarding the effect of your recent reports from Baghdad (Watch Mark’s report here). I have been forwarded the correspondence between yourself and David Edwards of medialens.org, and would like to highlight that it is not merely medialens users, who are concerned about embedded coverage with the US Army. The intentions and continuing effects of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq have been questioned by too few people in the mainstream media and political parties, primarily only the Guardian and Independent, and the Liberal Democrats, respectively.

There is a widespread, and well-sourced, belief based on both experience and evidence, in both the British military and academia, that the US is not "just in Iraq to keep the peace, regardless of what the troops on the ground believe. It is in Iraq to establish a client state amenable to the requirements of US realpolitik in a key, oil-rich region. To doubt this is to be ignorant of the motives that have guided US foreign policy in the post-war period and a mountain of evidence since 2003." (quote from medialens)

That the invasion was 'illegal, immoral and unwinnable', and the 'greatest foreign policy blunder since Suez' - to paraphrase the Liberal Democrats - is the overwhelming feeling of many of my peers, and they speak of loathsome six-month tours, during which they led patrols with dread and fear, reluctantly providing target practice for insurgents, senselessly haemorrhaging casualties, and squandering soldiers' lives, as part of Bush's vain attempt to delay the inevitable Anglo-US rout until after the next US election. Given a free choice most of us would never have invaded Iraq, and certainly would have withdrawn long ago. Hopefully, Tony Blairs's handover to Gordon Brown will herald a change of policy, and rapid withdrawal, but skewed pro-US coverage inhibits proper public debate, and is deeply unhealthy; lethally-so to many of us deployed to Iraq.

The [inadvertent] dangers of bias of embedded journalism are well known and there is a risk that the 'official line' can be conflated with evidence and facts. Jon Snow graphically demonstrated the effect of this during the initial invasion of Iraq in his programme The True Face of War. I am conscious that reporting independently, outside of the 'green zone' in Iraq is nigh on impossible, but I would merely request that the 'official line/White House propaganda' be handled with an appropriate degree of scepticism, and be caveated accordingly."

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2007-6-13 07:44 AM

#15

matt605
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They must invade Iran now.

The reason the military is losing in Iraq is because they will not attack the problem in Iran.

I opposed the war in Iraq because I believed it would force America to have to invade Iran. It really is the only solution. If America leaves without conquering Iran, then all the economic and political advantages of invading Iraq and Afghanistan will be lost. Iran will annex Iraq and Afghanistan, and then America will have to spend really large amounts of money and really large numbers of lives to fix things.

Invading Iran now is the cheapest solution all around.

2007-6-13 08:56 AM

#16

changabula
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The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq

At Fort Benning, soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight are now being sent to war. Is this an isolated incident or a trend?

By Mark Benjamin
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Photo: Reuters/Jason Reed

George W. Bush greets troops and their families on the tarmac before his departure from Fort Benning, Ga., on Jan. 11, 2007.

March 11, 2007 | COLUMBUS, Ga. -- "This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear. "This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers," he said angrily. "If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight."

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical problems -- from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.

The 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade is now leaving for Iraq for a third time in a steady stream. In fact, some of the troops with medical conditions interviewed by Salon last week are already gone. Others are slated to fly out within a week, but are fighting against their chain of command, holding out hope that because of their ills they will ultimately not be forced to go. Jenkins, who is still in Georgia, thinks doctors are helping to send hurt soldiers like him to Iraq to make units going there appear to be at full strength. "This is about the numbers," he said flatly.

That is what worries Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, who has long been concerned that the military was pressing injured troops into Iraq. "Did they send anybody down range that cannot wear a helmet, that cannot wear body armor?" Robinson asked rhetorically. "Well that is wrong. It is a war zone." Robinson thinks that the possibility that physical profiles may have been altered improperly has the makings of a scandal. "My concerns are that this needs serious investigation. You cannot just look at somebody and tell that they were fit," he said. "It smacks of an overstretched military that is in crisis mode to get people onto the battlefield."

Eight soldiers who were at the Feb. 15 meeting say they were summoned to the troop medical clinic at 6:30 in the morning and lined up to meet with division surgeon Lt. Col. George Appenzeller, who had arrived from Fort Stewart, Ga., and Capt. Aaron K. Starbuck, brigade surgeon at Fort Benning. The soldiers described having a cursory discussion of their profiles, with no physical exam or extensive review of medical files. They say Appenzeller and Starbuck seemed focused on downplaying their physical problems. "This guy was changing people's profiles left and right," said a captain who injured his back during his last tour in Iraq and was ordered to Iraq after the Feb. 15 review.

Appenzeller said the review of 75 soldiers with profiles was an effort to make sure they were as accurate as possible prior to deployment. "As the division surgeon and the senior medical officer in the division, I wanted to ensure that all the patients with profiles were fully evaluated with clear limitations that commanders could use to make the decision whether they could deploy, and if they did deploy, what their limitations would be while there," he said in a telephone interview from Fort Stewart. He said he changed less than one-third of those profiles -- even making some more restrictive -- in order to "bring them into accordance with regulations."

In direct contradiction to the account given by the soldiers, Appenzeller said physical examinations were conducted and that he had a robust medical team there working with him, which is how they managed to complete 75 reviews in one day. Appenzeller denied that the plan was to find more warm bodies for the surge into Baghdad, as did Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., the brigade commander. Grigsby said he is under "no pressure" to find soldiers, regardless of health, to make his unit look fit. The health and welfare of his soldiers are a top priority, said Grigsby, because [the soldiers] are "our most important resource, perhaps the most important resource we have in this country."

Grigsby said he does not know how many injured soldiers are in his ranks. But he insisted that it is not unusual to deploy troops with physical limitations so long as he can place them in safe jobs when they get there. "They can be productive and safe in Iraq," Grigsby said.

The injured soldiers interviewed by Salon, however, expressed considerable worry about going to Iraq with physical deficits because it could endanger them or their fellow soldiers. Some were injured on previous combat tours. Some of their ills are painful conditions from training accidents or, among relatively older troops, degenerative problems like back injuries or blown-out knees. Some of the soldiers have been in the Army for decades.

And while Grigsby, the brigade commander, says he is under no pressure to find troops, it is hard to imagine there is not some desperation behind the decision to deploy some of the sick soldiers. Master Sgt. Jenkins, 42, has a degenerative spine problem and a long scar down the back of his neck where three of his vertebrae were fused during surgery. He takes a cornucopia of potent pain pills. His medical records say he is "at significantly increased risk of re-injury during deployment where he will be wearing Kevlar, body armor and traveling through rough terrain." Late last year, those medical records show, a doctor recommended that Jenkins be referred to an Army board that handles retirements when injuries are permanent and severe.

A copy of Jenkins' profile written after that Feb. 15 meeting and signed by Capt. Starbuck, the brigade surgeon, shows a healthier soldier than the profile of Jenkins written by another doctor just late last year, though Jenkins says his condition is unchanged. Other soldiers' documents show the same pattern.

One female soldier with psychiatric issues and a spine problem has been in the Army for nearly 20 years. "My [health] is deteriorating," she said over dinner at a restaurant near Fort Benning. "My spine is separating. I can't carry gear." Her medical records include the note "unable to deploy overseas." Her status was also reviewed on Feb. 15. And she has been ordered to Iraq this week.

[ Last edited by changabula at 2007-6-15 03:48 AM ]

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2007-6-15 03:45 AM

#17

changabula
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The captain interviewed by Salon also requested anonymity because he fears retribution. He suffered a back injury during a previous deployment to Iraq as an infantry platoon leader. A Humvee accident "corkscrewed my spine," he explained. Like the female soldier, he is unable to wear his protective gear, and like her he too was ordered to Iraq after his meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon on Feb. 15. He is still at Fort Benning and is fighting the decision to send him to Baghdad. "It is a numbers issue with this whole troop surge," he claimed. "They are just trying to get those numbers."

Another soldier contacted Salon by telephone last week expressed considerable anxiety, in a frightened tone, about deploying to Iraq in her current condition. (She also wanted to remain anonymous, fearing retribution.) An incident during training several years ago injured her back, forcing doctors to remove part of her fractured coccyx. She suffers from degenerative disk disease and has two ruptured disks and a bulging disk in her back. While she said she loves the Army and would like to deploy after back surgery, her current injuries would limit her ability to wear her full protective gear. She deployed to Iraq last week, the day after calling Salon.

Her husband, who has served three combat tours in the infantry in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he is worried sick because his wife's protective vest alone exceeds the maximum amount she is allowed to lift. "I have been over there three times. I know what it is like," he told me during lunch at a restaurant here. He predicted that by deploying people like his wife, the brigade leaders are "going to get somebody killed over there." He said there is "no way" Grigsby is going to keep all of the injured soldiers in safe jobs. "All of these people that deploy with these profiles, they are scared," he said. He railed at the command: "They are saying they don't care about your health. This is pathetic. It is bad."

His wife's physical profile was among those reevaluated on Feb. 15. A copy of her profile from late last year showed her health problems were so severe they "prevent deployment" and recommended she be medically retired from the Army. Her profile at that time showed she was unable to wear a protective mask and chemical defense equipment, and had limitations on doing pushups, walking, biking and swimming. It said she can only carry 15 pounds.

Though she says that her condition has not changed since then, almost all of those findings were reversed in a copy of her physical profile dated Feb. 15. The new profile says nothing about a medical retirement, but suggests that she limit wearing a helmet to "one hour at a time."

Spc. Lincoln Smith, meanwhile, developed sleep apnea after he returned from his first deployment to Iraq. The condition is so severe that he now suffers from narcolepsy because of a lack of sleep. He almost nodded off mid-conversation while talking to Salon as he sat in a T-shirt on a sofa in his girlfriend's apartment near Fort Benning.

Smith is trained by the Army to be a truck driver. But since he is in constant danger of falling asleep, military doctors have listed "No driving of military vehicles" on his physical profile. Smith was supposed to fly to Iraq March 9. But he told me on March 8 that he won't go. Nobody has retrained Smith to do anything else besides drive trucks. Plus, because of his condition he was unable to train properly with the unit when the brigade rehearsed for Iraq in January, so he does not feel ready.

Smith needs to sleep with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine pumping air into his mouth and nose. "Otherwise," he says, "I could die." But based on his last tour, he is not convinced he will be able to be in places with constant electricity or will be able to fix or replace his CPAP machine should it fail.

He told me last week he would refuse to deploy to Iraq, unsure of what he will be asked to do there and afraid that he will not be taken care of. Since he won't be a truck driver, "I would be going basically as a number," says Smith, who is 32. "They don't have enough people," he says. But he is not going to be one of those numbers until they train him to do something else. "I'm going to go to the airport, and I'm going to tell them I'm not going to go. They are going to give me a weapon. I am going to say, 'It is not a good idea for you to give me a weapon right now.'"

The Pentagon was notified of the reclassification of the Fort Benning soldiers as soon as it happened, according to Master Sgt. Jenkins. He showed Salon an e-mail describing the situation that he says he sent to Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. Jenkins agreed to speak to Salon because he hopes public attention will help other soldiers, particularly younger ones in a similar predicament. "I can't sit back and let this happen to me or other soldiers in my position." But he expects reprisals from the Army.

Other soldiers slated to leave for Iraq with injuries said they wonder whether the same thing is happening in other units in the Army. "You have to ask where else this might be happening and who is dictating it," one female soldier told me. "How high does it go?"

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2007-6-15 03:46 AM

#18

changabula
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From an Angry Soldier
Date: 2007-04-10, 1:00PM PDT

I'm having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I'm going to write this while I'm pissed off enough to do it right.

I am SICK of all this bull---- people are writing about the Iraq war. I am abso-----ing-lutely sick to death of it. What the ---- do most of you know about it? You watch it on TV and read the commentaries in the newspaper or Newsweek or whatever god damn yuppie news rag you subscribe to and think you're all such ----ing experts that you can scream at each other like five year old about whether you're right or not. Let me tell you something: unless you've been there, you don't know a god damn thing about it. It you haven't been shot at in that ----ing hell hole, SHUT THE ---- UP!

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who are "Supporting our Troops" and waving the flag and all that happy horse ----? I'll tell you why. I'm a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that ----ing festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.

You ----ers and that god-damn lying sack of ---- they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

And you know what the most ----ed up thing about this Iraq ---- is? They don't want us there. They're not happy we came and they want us out NOW. We ----ed up their lives even worse than they already were and they're pissed off. We didn't help them and we're not helping them now. That's what our soldiers are dying for.

Oh while I'm good and worked up, the government doesn't even have the decency to help out the soldiers whos lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so ----ed up, you are a god-damn retard. They don't care about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they'd bring them home so their families wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country, we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

So I'm pissed. I'm beyond pissed. And I'm going to go to my husband funeral and recieve that flag and hang it up on the wall for my baby to see when he's older. But I'm not going to tell him that his father died for the stupidty of the American government. I'm going to tell him that his father was a hero and the best man I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die for it, because that's all true and nothing will be solved by telling my son that his father was sent to die by people who didn't care about him at all.

---- you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the god damn mother ----ers who made the war possible. I hope you burn in hell.

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This is pretty sad. If anyone deserves to be heard, it's the soldiers and their families.

[ Last edited by changabula at 2007-6-16 08:35 AM ]

2007-6-16 08:29 AM

#19

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'EFPs' a big threat to U.S. forces in Iraq
Copper-plated explosives that pierce armored vehicles are proving so deadly that the military is advocating foot patrols instead.
By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer
June 22, 2007

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops working the streets of the capital fear one Iraqi weapon more than others — a copper-plated explosive that can penetrate armor and has proved devastating to Humvees and even capable of severely damaging tanks.

The power of what the military calls an EFP — for explosively formed penetrator, or projectile — to spray molten metal balls that punch through the armor on vehicles has some American troops rethinking their tactics. They are asking whether the U.S. should give up its reliance on making constant improvements to vehicle defenses.

Instead, these troops think, it is time to leave the armor behind — and get out and walk.

"In our area, the biggest threat for us is EFPs. When you are in the vehicles, you are a big target," said Army Staff Sgt. Cavin Moskwa, 33, of Hawaii, who patrols Baghdad's Zafraniya neighborhood with the Bravo Battery of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment. "But when you are dismounted … you are a lot safer."

In the last three days, 15 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, nine of them in two powerful roadside bomb blasts. The military does not publicly identify the kind of weapon used in improvised explosive attacks, but the deadly nature of the blasts Wednesday and Thursday suggested that EFPs may have been used.

The deaths brought to 3,545 the total number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq theater since the March 2003 American-led invasion, the U.S. military said. Hundreds of these troops have been killed by EFPs and other kinds of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The Pentagon's most recent Iraq status report said EFP attacks were at an all-time high.

Foot patrols, of course, are not a fail-safe method. On city streets, snipers remain a threat. And bombs can still kill dismounted troops. But when blasts occur in the middle of a foot patrol, the number of casualties are generally lower because the troops are more spread out.

Before a foot patrol last week through a neighborhood next to Baghdad's Sadr City district, a private with Alpha Company of the Army's 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, began complaining about having to walk. But EFPs have claimed the lives of several soldiers in the unit, and Sgt. Leland Kidd, 28, of Gonzales, Texas, said the private should be thankful they were on foot.

"When I walk on my feet, I don't have to worry about being blown up," Kidd told the private. "In the vehicle, I have to."

Top commanders have been encouraging more such units in Baghdad to take just that tack.

A counterinsurgency guidance memo released last week by Army Lt. Gen Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day military operations, urges Iraqi and American troops to "get out and walk."

The memo argues that although Humvees offer protection, they also make units predictable and "insulate us from the Iraqi people we intend to secure."

The original draft of the memo, written by counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen, goes further. It notes that EFP attacks on Humvees damage them heavily. "So we gain little in safety, but sacrifice much in effectiveness," the draft reads.

One reason for the increased number of troops victimized by roadside bombs is that there are more forces in Iraq now, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference Thursday. This month, the final additional American combat units arrived in Baghdad, as part of a counterinsurgency strategy announced by President Bush in January that has increased the U.S. military presence in Iraq by 28,500 troops.

"As we're taking the fight to the enemy with the additional troops, we can expect that there's going to be tough fighting ahead," Pace said. "So it is an expectation that this surge is going to result in more contact and therefore more casualties."

But another reason for the rising death toll is the ability of Iraq's militants to adapt to new U.S. military tactics.

During the 2003 invasion, most American Humvees were outfitted with flimsy canvas doors. When the first improvised explosive devices made from artillery shells appeared, the military scrambled to put stronger armor on the vehicles. Since then, the military has repeatedly upgraded Humvee armor as militants have made bigger and bigger bombs.

But the small and easily hidden EFPs, which often are powered by C-4 plastic explosives, are not just a more powerful IED. Military personnel experienced with the projectiles say that what makes the weapons so deadly is that they use the Americans' own armor against them. As the hot copper slug melts through the armor of a Humvee, it transforms the protective plating into shrapnel that sprays into the passenger cabin, they say.

"We joked about going back to canvas doors. That way, unless it hits you directly, you are OK," said Army Sgt. William Bowman, 31, of Fort Myers, Fla.

But to Moskwa, the staff sergeant from Hawaii, the question of armor is no joke. Moskwa, who served as an Army recruiter in Pasadena before deploying to Iraq, thinks armor on vehicles and body armor on troops are too restrictive, hampering a service member's ability to move quickly and agilely.

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2007-6-23 02:46 AM

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