by Todd Davis
Monday, Mar. 22, 2004 at 11:44 AM
neoxz34@hotmail.com http://groups.msn.com/GlobalPerspectivesandInternationalForum/_whatsnew.msnw
A short article about the problems with the
Bush Administration's policies in Iraq.
The invasion of Iraq was supposed to reduce terrorism according to the Bush Administration, and make us safe from terrorists. We were told by President Bush that
the WMD would be found, and that our troops would be greeted as liberators. The
WMD were never found, and US troops are mostly scene as an occupation force
from an intrusive global superpower.
Now about another 574 US soldiers are dead, 3,330 have been wounded in Iraq, and about 100 coalition troops are dead. Terrorism has actually increased in Iraq as al Qaeda has deployed more terrorists to the conflict, and local indigenous Baathists have formed a several local terrorist groups including Ansar al-Islam.
The Iraqi Shiite terrorist bombing in on March 2, 2004 in Baghdad, and Karbala killed
about 143. Then on March 17, 2004 a car bomb exploded in Baghdad near the Mount
Lebanon Hotel, and about 27 people were killed in terrorist attack, and 41 were injured.
According to the Washington Post Ansar al-Islam, and a Jordanian group with ties to al Qaeda were believed to be responsible.
Over 50 percent of the Iraqi work force is unemployed, and job creation rates are not encouraging. The World Bank has estimated that Iraq’s GDP was reduced by 22 percent
in 2003, and average personal income fell from $1,020 in 2001, to $610 in 2003.
US troops have become magnets of nationalism, and the terrorism in Iraq is increasing,
as dismal economic conditions serve to increase the number of terrorists in groups
like Ansar al-Islam, and al Qaeda. In some areas the chaos has broken down into a
virtual civil war between Shiite, and Sunni terrorists supporting conflicting policies
about the future of Iraq.
Jessica Stern noted in the New York Times: “America has created — not through malevolence but through negligence — precisely the situation the Bush administration has described as a breeding ground for terrorists: a state unable to control its borders or provide for its citizens' rudimentary needs.”
As al Qaeda increases it’s global terrorist operations, US allies such as Spain begin to
desert the front in Iraq. The al Qaeda bombing in Madrid of the train station killed
201 people, and wounded 1,500. New Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero is going to pull out Spanish troops from Iraq, and he has embraced a foreign
policy similar to those of France, and Germany.
The anti-war protests of the first anniversary of the war in Iraq have attracted 100,000
protesters in New York City, and 50,000 in San Francisco. Global protests against the Bush Administration’s occupation of Iraq attracted millions on March 20, 2004 according to the Washington Post.
US foreign policy in Iraq has become a shambles, and the occupation of Iraq is on
the precipice of collapse. The Bush Administration’s policies in Iraq have failed
miserably, and the war on terror has not reduced global terrorism.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6338-2004Mar18.html