WP: In Iraqi Town, U.S. Feels Push Toward an Exit(Residents Blame Troops)

[Pirate Smile]

In Iraqi Town, U.S. Feels Push Toward an Exit
Residents Blame Attacks on Troop Presence

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 4, 2006; Page A10

HIT, Iraq --
-snip-
So it goes here in western Iraq's Anbar province, a center of Sunni resistance. In Hit, U.S. forces and their Iraqi counterparts are the target of most of the two dozen attacks -- road bombs, shootings and mortar fire -- each week. Residents are quick to argue that the American presence incites those attacks, and they blame the U.S. military rather than insurgents for turning their town into a combat zone. The Americans should pull out, they say, and let them solve their own problems.
Increasingly, the U.S. military seems eager to oblige.

-snip-
Another U.S. officer put it more bluntly: "Nobody wants us here, so why are we here? That's the big question," said Maj. Brent E. Lilly. Lilly leads a Marine civil affairs team that has disbursed many thousands of dollars for damage claims and projects in Hit, but is still mortared almost daily. "If we leave, all the attacks would stop, because we'd be gone."

-snip-
All phone systems in Hit have been destroyed. The war has shut down industry, so at least 50 percent of the people are jobless and a quarter live in poverty. The town's bank holds no money. Fuel is scarce, and most of what is available is sold by insurgents at black-market prices, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The police disbanded more than a year ago and Hit still has no officers on the job, although a new force is in training.

Conditions in the city are so bad that Hit's mayor recently asked the U.S. military to send him to Abu Ghraib prison -- "just for the summer," he told one U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "You have air conditioning, three meals a day, soccer balls. Abu Ghraib is a nice place," the mayor said, according to the U.S. officer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301711.html

[Historic NY]

1. "If we leave, all the attacks would stop, because we'd be gone."

isn't that what Jack Murtha was saying months ago....our troops should pull back over the horizon. The only thing left for them to attack is each other and that will end when enough are killed off. Sadly they will grow tired of killing each other, apparently thats the only thing they know.

[Pirate Smile]

2. What a horribly, tragic existence this article portrays for both our

troops and the people of Hit.

More from the article:

"What did we do to have all this suffering?" asked Ramsey Abdullah Hindi, 60, sitting outside a tea shop. Ignoring U.S. troops within earshot, he said Iraqis were justified to attack them. "They have a right to fight against the Americans because of their religion and the bad treatment. We will stand until the last," he said somberly.

Buchanan pressed on with the patrol, all too familiar with the gripes. "Everything's our fault. I understand that," he said.

-snip-
In an effort to win cooperation, Graves has tried softer tactics. Raids are still frequent -- Graves has sent 130 people from Hit to prison -- but his soldiers avoid using stun grenades, after a city official complained that they made him afraid to make love to his wife at night.

Lilly and other U.S. officers said they were increasingly persuaded that U.S. forces could withdraw outside the city with little military impact, even with only a rudimentary local government and Iraqi security force in Hit. While the Iraqi army contingent in Hit has shrunk to about 400 men, 60 percent of its strength, police officers recruited from outlying tribes are undergoing training.
"If we do leave, the city will be a lot better and they'll build it a lot better," Lilly said."

[Barrett808]

4. Yes, that sums up the whole occupation

But the neocons won't give up their oil.

[kurth]

3. Yep. Democracy and Freedom

What a fucking mess, created by the evil monster.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. "created by the evil monster" - and that would be who?

.
.
.

Oh yeah right

The American voters

[bronxiteforever]

7. The fault dear Brutus...Its true

The American people better take a good look at themselves and "stop this shit", in the words of our genius President. Our love of violence and greed is corrupting our country, not gay marriage.:banghead:

[adriennui]

6. good, let's leave

eom

[Amonester]

8. And to think the lil' AWOL king wannabe who's responsible for...

this shock~ing and awe~ful mess is now out on vacation...

AWOL one day... AWOL every day. :puke:


On edit: Changed "shocking and aweful" for what I meant.