US CASUALTIES TO SKYROCKET

From Reuters:

Bush Iraq plan has many risks, no guarantees

Advocates of the boost pin much of their hopes on the fact that U.S. forces will now hold areas of Baghdad once they have been cleared of insurgents and militia fighters. This, they say, will be a significant change.

"The proof of the pudding is in the holding," said Tom Donnelly, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, who favors an increase in U.S. forces.

Previous operations failed because U.S. and Iraqi forces did not have enough troops to hold areas after clearing them of enemy fighters, U.S. officials have said.

Donnelly said he expected the U.S. casualty rate to rise at least initially after the new strategy is adopted but it could decline after a month to six weeks if operations succeeded.

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I heard a little bit more about this on Nightline a little while ago. The plan for holding these Baghdad neighborhoods involves creating "mini-camps," outside of the so-called Green Zone, which essentially amount to police sub-stations. That is, Bush's marvelous plan for taking out the insurgents in Iraq's capitol city permanently is to paint big huge targets on the chests of our soldiers and marines. They're going to be sitting ducks out there, completely at the mercy of guerilla fighters who blend into the local population, and can strike brutally without warning.

This is fucking stupid and Bush is a heinous asshole. Get ready for lots of flag draped coffins.

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