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Tet Memories Underscore Woes in Iraq    [

    US Reviews Baghdad Strategy as Troop Deaths Mount
    By Ibon Villelabeitia
    Reuters

    Friday 20 October 2006

    Baghdad - The U.S. military said on Thursday it was reviewing strategy in Baghdad, where U.S. reinforcements have failed to halt spiraling violence, and expressed grave concern about mounting troop deaths.

    The battle for control of Baghdad, which U.S. officials say will decide Iraq's future, and a spate of attacks across Iraq on Thursday that killed at least 38 people piled pressure on President Bush before the November mid-term election.

    In Washington, a senior administration official said the latest Baghdad security strategy had not achieved its goal and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, was expected to present a revised plan within weeks.

    "Everybody understands you've got to have progress on the security issue in Baghdad," the official said.

    The U.S. military will be looking at the "adequacy" of Iraqi forces deployed in Baghdad, whether to change the balance of Iraqi police and soldiers in the city, and the role of U.S. troops there, the official said.

    Bush, whose Republicans are battling to retain control of the U.S. Congress, said he saw a possible parallel in the rise in violence in Iraq and the 1968 communist Tet offensive, which triggered a drop in Americans' support for the Vietnam War.

    Asked in an ABC interview whether he agreed the violence in Iraq was the "jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive," Bush said: "(It) could be right. There's certainly a stepped up level of violence and we're heading into an election."

    Bush said al Qaeda was very active in Iraq and trying to foment sectarian violence as well as kill U.S. troops.

    "They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause government to withdraw," he said.

    Later at a Republican fund-raising event, Bush said: "There is one thing we will not do. We will not pull out our troops from Iraq before the terrorists are defeated."

    Sectarian Militias

    A spokesman said Casey had ordered the review of strategy in Baghdad, widely seen as crucial to bringing enough stability to Iraq to allow U.S. troops to eventually leave the country.

    U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the number of attacks targeting security forces in Baghdad had risen since U.S. troops launched a crackdown designed to end sectarian violence killing dozens of people every day.

    U.S. commanders have blamed the rise in U.S. casualties in Baghdad on more perilous patrolling by U.S. forces trying to defeat sectarian militias and Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the Shi'ite-led government.

    Caldwell said violence across the country had risen by at least 20 percent in the first three weeks of the holy month of Ramadan, compared to the previous three weeks.

    He said civilian casualty levels in Baghdad stabilized in October, but added: "Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but it has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in ... violence.

    "We are working very closely with the government of Iraq to determine how best to refocus our efforts," he said.

    Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said Casey ordered the review last week. "U.S. casualties are a grave concern but that is not driving the review," Garver told Reuters.

    The U.S. death toll rose on Thursday to 73 for October, which could become one of the deadliest months for U.S. forces since a massive offensive in Falluja two years ago.

    In Mosul, six suicide bombers including one in a fuel truck blew themselves up near police stations and U.S. patrols, and insurgents fired mortar bombs and clashed with police in violence that killed at least 20 and wounded dozens.

    A car bomb in Kirkuk killed at least eight people in an attack aimed at an Iraqi army patrol. In Khalis, a roadside bomb ripped through a busy market, killing 10 and wounding 20.

    More than 2,780 U.S. troops have been killed since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

    Many more Iraqis have been killed and more than 300,000 have fled their homes in what some fear could lead to a sectarian partition of Iraq.

    But the White House branded as a "non-starter" any suggestion of setting up semi-autonomous Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions, as a top-level commission worked on recommendations for Bush on strategy over Iraq.

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    Tet Memories Underscore Woes in Iraq
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 19 October 2006

    Baghdad, Iraq - Given the U.S. military's troubled history in Vietnam, generals and their foot soldiers in Iraq may have shuddered after they heard President Bush acknowledge a comparison with today's Iraq and the Viet Cong's 1968 Tet Offensive.

    In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, the president said a New York Times column by Thomas Friedman might be correct in drawing that analogy.

    "He could be right," the president said. "There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."

    Tet, which began in early 1968 and is seen by many as a turning point in the Vietnam war, did serious damage to President Lyndon B. Johnson's public support. Two months after the offensive began, he announced he would not seek a full, second term in the White House.

    The military and the Bush administration, even before the president's comments Wednesday on ABC, had blamed the recent increase in attacks on U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and elsewhere on the insurgents' savvy - a gamble that they could affect the vote in coming U.S. elections.

    "In regards to this spike in violence ... it's no coincidence that the surge in attacks against coalition forces and the subsequent increase in U.S. casualties coincides with our increased presence on the streets of Baghdad and the run-up to the American midterm elections," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Thursday.

    "The enemy knows that killing innocent people and Americans will garner headlines and create a sense of frustration," he said.

    As Caldwell spoke, the White House sought to clarify Bush's remarks, to put them back into the context of ties between increased American deaths and the coming U.S. vote.

    "The president was making a point that he's made before, which is that terrorists try to exploit pictures and try to use the media as conduits for influencing public opinion in the United States," spokesman Tony Snow said.

    Attacks in Baghdad rose 22 percent in the first three weeks of Islam's holy month of Ramadan, Caldwell said, when compared to the previous three weeks. The month of fasting and prayers began in late September and is in its final days.

    So far this month 73 U.S. troops have been killed, putting October on course to be the deadliest for American forces in Iraq since November 2004, when U.S. was in the midst of a drive to oust insurgents from their stronghold of Fallujah in Anbar province.

    Caldwell dodged when questioned about Bush's comparison of Iraq with the Tet Offensive.

    "I think we're getting far beyond my realm to start making analogies back to Vietnam War, but I would tell you that we're obviously very concerned about what we're seeing in the city."

    As happened in Vietnam, the United States and its host government are growing increasingly at odds over specifics in how the war is being conducted.

    Among other things, Washington and Baghdad may differ over an amnesty plan for insurgents - a bid to draw fighters into the political process. There were reports the White House was pressuring Iraqi authorities to give amnesty to Sunni insurgents, although that would be a surprising change for the Bush administration, which has resisted amnesty because it could potentially include those who have killed American troops.

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office under a 24-point national unity program, which included an amnesty, but the plan soon collapsed after disputes with the United States over which insurgents could be included.

    Beyond that, the country's Shiite-dominated parliament - with no objection from fellow Shiite al-Maliki - adopted a measure last week that would allow Iraq's 18 provinces to band together according to religious or ethnic population into autonomous or federal regions. Some fear such a move would effectively lead to the dismemberment of Iraq, but not before far more bloodshed.

    The White House on Thursday came out strongly against such a plan, which reportedly shared some elements with expected recommendations of a commission exploring U.S. options in Iraq.

    Snow said a division of Iraq was a "nonstarter," suggesting a yet a fresh point of friction in the growing list of issues over which the al-Maliki government and the Bush administration appear to be at odds.

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    Steven R. Hurst is AP Baghdad bureau chief and has reported frequently from Iraq since 2003.