Ongoing Last Throes

According to Stratfor, insurgents launched an offensive in Ramadi today:

Anywhere from 250 to 400 insurgents mounted a counterattack in Ar Ramadi, the capital of western Iraq's restive Anbar province, after dawn Dec. 1, seizing parts of the city and staging rocket and mortar attacks against government buildings and U.S. bases. The insurgents were seen patrolling openly in some areas, and rounded up local residents who they claimed were collaborators with the coalition and Iraqi government...

The attack appears to have represented a raid rather than an attempt to retake and hold the city. At 11 a.m. local time, U.S. Marines re-entered Ar Ramadi; rather than stand and fight, the insurgents retreated, melting into the surrounding area. The insurgents likely intended their attack to represent a statement rather than an effort to force a military engagement they could not win.

The attack came in response to Operation Tigers, a U.S.-Iraqi sweep in Ar Ramadi. Significantly, the attack occurred as U.S. Marine officers and local tribal officials met for the second time in a week to discuss running Ar Ramadi after the recent anti-insurgent sweeps.

By attacking the very building where the meeting was taking place, the insurgents sent a signal to the Iraqi government and U.S. forces that their bid to secure the city had failed, and would continue to be contested.

More important, the insurgents' show of strength will not be lost on the tribal leaders, who could be reconsidering cooperating with the U.S. and Iraqi forces. Any tribal leaders who may be on the fence will probably stay there for a while rather than risk a return of the insurgents to Ar Ramadi and their subsequent reprisals on those who had pledged allegiance to the government. Discouraging local tribes from aligning with the government benefits the insurgents by allowing them to hold on to their safe-havens and operations bases.

As Iraq's Dec. 15 elections approach, some of the insurgents have accelerated their efforts to disrupt the political process, indicating that they continue to get support from elements of the Iraqi Sunni community opposed to the process. Although it was foreign jihadist militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's jihadist network, al Qaeda in Iraq, who distributed leaflets claiming credit for the attack, it is Sunni nationalists from tribes opposed to the political process or that seek more concessions from the government before joining in who likely made up the bulk of the insurgent force.

The events in Ar Ramadi on Dec. 1 represent nothing new. Insurgents have been able to return to several major towns and cites in force following operations designed to eradicate their presence. Cities such as As Samarra, Al Fallujah and Mosul continue to see insurgent activity after repeated U.S.-led offensives there. In Tall Afar, where U.S. and Iraq forces lauded their efforts to eliminate jihadist insurgents in September, a wave of suicide attacks struck the town immediately after the conclusion of the operation, including one at an Iraqi police recruiting center.

Operation Tigers was supposed to be part of the U.S. effort to demonstrate that Iraqi forces are becoming more capable of handling security responsibilities. U.S. civilian and military officials have been increasingly expressing the need to build up the Iraqi security forces as a prerequisite for a U.S. troop reduction. But if Ar Ramadi represents an example of how such demonstrations will turn out, significant changes will have to be made in the political and military efforts to stabilize the country before Iraqis can handle their own security.

I saw this also on the main Yahoo news page an hour or so ago--but it seems to have vanished, along with any reference if you run a search (I found the story above at Google news). Regardless, the insurgents' ability to send at least 250 people on an offensive makes a mockery of administration attempts to paint pretty pictures--or paint schools, or whatever the hell else they're trying.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of the Willing is now the Coalition of the Lighter by two, with Ukraine and Bulgaria having had enough--and six more countries are thinking of pulling stakes (no word on "the lone Dutch soldier" in Baghdad). And speechifyin' by Gee Dub the ignorant yokel won't change a thing.

According to John Murtha, the administration's actions have left the Army much like their INACTION left the Gulf Coast: "broken, worn out, living hand to mouth." The vaccuum chamber that's the collective noggin of this administration is so glaringly apparent that, as Murtha noted a week or so ago, "the public is way ahead [of the Congress]" on the issue of Iraq--and probably on the issue of nation building...in the UNITED STATES.

C'mon Democrats--the Repugs are out of gas, out of steam, out of ideas. They can be knocked over with a feather, although I'd still recommend a sledgehammer. Stop trying to placate a bunch of losers and realize it's there for the taking. Get up off your ass, no pun intended.