Panic in White House?

THE so-called coalition forces, particularly American soldiers, in Iraq are now paying a bloody price for their illegal and misconceived invasion of that country. One suspects, in fact, that US President George Bush and his team of White House warmongers must now be secretly panicking over the increasing death toll among US occupying forces and the inevitable impact this would have on their domestic agenda, especially with a presidential election around the corner and signs of rising protest among sections of the American population.

Since Bush’s fatuous declaration on a home-coming US battleship last May, that the US mission in Iraq had been accomplished, a total of 261 American servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq, victims of an intensifying guerrilla war. This death toll among the conquerors in Iraq is more than the 200 US soldiers who lost their lives in the massive invasion which eventually toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. During this month alone, the rising body count has topped 40 US troops slaughtered in rocket grenade attacks, sniper fire and vehicle bombings.

The escalating guerrilla war has now assumed frightening proportions, waged apparently by a mottley combination of Hussein loyalists and radical elements streaming into the country from all over the Arab world. This violent backlash has created a major security crisis in Iraq as it  targets not only the US occupying forces but all those, including Iraqis themselves, who are perceived to be aiding and abetting the American effort to rebuild that war-ruined country. Yesterday, the guerrillas extended their target to the Italian military police headquarters in the southeastern city of Nasiriya where a powerful truck bomb exploded, killing 17 Italians as well as an unknown number of Iraqis, and trapping others under the debris. A coalition spokesman said the vehicle crashed through the gate of the compound and exploded in front of the Carabinieri building which collapsed under its impact. The force of the explosion was so strong that it blew out windows in another building across the Euphrates River. All the vehicles parked outside the stricken building burst into flames.

Instead of a country welcoming them with open arms, the US forces are now facing a deadly and elusive foe who cannot be distinguished from among the ordinary citizens of Iraq. All this is the horrible and, as far as we are concerned, inevitable result of the Bush administration’s colossal stupidity in launching their unwarranted and dishonest invasion of Iraq in which thousands of innocent persons, including women and children, were slaughtered and maimed. How worried, if not panicky, they have now become over the terrible outcome of their hubristic handiwork may be seen in this week’s unexpected summons to Washington of Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, who was questioned about his progress in creating a new civil government for that unfortunate country. Clearly Mr Bush and his White House brigade are anxious to have the morass they have created in Iraq cleared up before next year’s presidential elections. The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council must, by December 15, set a timetable for drafting a constitution and holding elections, as required by the UN Security Council. But the future of Iraq now hangs precariously in the balance with the country descending into greater chaos and Saddam’s forces wreaking greater havoc. How many more must die in this foolish escapade?