A new Vietnam…
Some observers say Iraq may become another Vietnam for the US occupation forces.
American officials, including the President himself and his defence secretary, vehemently deny that saying Iraq is a different situation altogether.
Yet, US field commanders have admitted that their troops are facing an escalating guerrilla war with an average of 25 attacks everyday.
The mounting number of casualties from combat operations has exacerbated US worries and opinion polls have shown that an increasing number of American citizens are not happy with the present situation in Iraq.
A Gallup poll published on 8 July 2003 indicated that 42% of the US public think the war in Iraq is going badly compared to 13% in May.
The tactics of searching neighbourhoods, blockading cities, mass round-up operations, and torturing and killing of civilians are fuelling the resentment of the Iraqi people toward occupation forces.
Resistance is gaining momentum in the central and mid-northern regions of Iraq while the Shia dominated regions in the south have been relatively quiet so far.
However, Iraqi resistance groups are not clearly defined yet, and only four groups – unknown before – have revealed their identities and warned the occupation forces that they will fight until Iraq is free.
These are:
- The Armed Islamic Movement for al-Qaida
- The National Brigades of Iraqi Resistance
- The National Front of Fedayeen
- The Salfist Jihad Group.
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US Troops are facing an escalating |
Using rocket-propelled grenades, mines, explosives and mortars, the Iraqi resistance fighters are costing the occupation forces a lot in life and equipment.
Regardless of whether the attacks are orchestrated by Saddam as the US says, the truth is that Iraqi citizens are disillusioned with an occupation that has left them without jobs, incomes, security, electricity and clean water.
Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense and a chief architect of the war on Iraq, has admitted that the Pentagon had been partially wrong in its post-war assumptions, saying: “Some conditions were worse than we anticipated.”
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