US troops in Iraq find life tougher every day

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 06, 2003

US troops in Iraq find life tougher every day

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Incidents of armed attack by Iraqi resistance forces against US occupation troops have suddenly escalated since the entry into Ramadan (the month of fast) on October 26. On November 2, a US troops' CH-47 multi-functional transport helicopter was brought down, causing 16 deaths and 20 injuries of US soldiers. This was the US army's third armed helicopters shot down since Bush declared an end to US main warfare in Iraq on May 1, thus bringing the number of deaths of US troops to 139, exceeding the figure of deaths in major hostilities.

Analysts believe that the escalation of Iraqi anti-US activities is associated with the leaflets recently distributed in Baghdad by the regional leading organ of the Socialist Baath Party, the leaflets declared November 1 as the resistance day, claiming that more armed attacks would be launched within three days, and calling on citizens, mainly workers and students to go on strikes, and stay at home, so as to avoid any injuries. This has stricken panic into the hearts of Baghdad residents and plunged urban life into a state of paralysis.

In the face of this series of explosion attacks, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helplessly admitted that the casualties suffered by US troops in the Iraq war were "unavoidable", but the United States would finally win the war. He lamented that the day was a "tragic day" for the Americans. In this long and arduous war, the United States would inevitably come across this "tragic day". It was very difficult and arduous to work in Iraq and time was needed, but the United States was achieving progress, and the United States would win the war. US Secretary of State Colin Powell also said frankly that the United States hadn't expected that it would encounter so fierce resistance.

In order to rid his country of the predicament, L. Paul Bremer, US highest civil administrative executor in charge of the affairs of Iraq's reconstruction, recently indicated that the US occupation authorities would speed up the work of recruitment and training of Iraqi soldiers and armed police force, so that they could quickly undertake the public security task in Iraq. He expressed his belief that Saddam Hussein was still around in Iraq, therefore capturing Saddam Hussein or shooting him dead remained one of the primary tasks of US troops in Iraq.

Analysts point out that Iraq's anti-US sentiment has been on the rise recently, there are the following reasons for this: First, the United States fails to honor its pre-war promise that it would "liberate" the Iraqi people from dire suffering, the US occupation authorities have committed a series of mistakes, such as dissolving the Iraqi army, police and the grass-root institutions of the Socialist Baath Party which it should have used to maintain Iraq's post-war stability, and bringing the latter into the unemployment army, thus making too many enemies. Second, for a long time it has failed to restore infrastructure construction, food is in short supply and people's living standards have experienced a sharp drop from before and third, the public security situation is grim and people are living in turbulence all day long. At present, the majority of Iraqi people are in a state of psychological contradiction, at first, they counted on the United States to overthrow Saddam's dictatorship, so that they could live a democratic and freedom life. However, now almost all Iraqi people oppose US occupation of Iraq, demanding that US troops withdraw as soon as possible and let the Iraqi people administer their own country themselves.

At present, there are three main forces that launch armed attack within Iraq: First, the followers of the Saddam regime; second, members of other armed organizations in Iraq; and third, Islamic holy warriors from abroad. Their scope of activities is concentrated mainly in the "triangular belt" extending from Baghdad to Ramadi, Tikrit and Mosul where the Muslim Sunnis gather together, while the area in the southern part where Shi'ites Muslims and Kurds assemble is relatively tranquil, because residents of these areas were previous victims of the Saddam regime, most of them maintain that the US troops now in Iraq are only "products under special conditions", believing that the US troops would pull out after the situation became stable, therefore they do not want to be in conflicts with the US troops.

Analysts maintain that the grim security situation in Iraq, if not put under control, will surely bring adverse effect on Bush now campaigning for re-election. On November 2, a poll now being conducted by Washington Post shows that most Americans have stood opposed for the first time to Bush's policy toward Iraq since the Iraqi crisis, at the same time, 62 percent people are of the opinion that US losses in Iraq are unacceptable, and that things are getting tougher for US troops in Iraq. Apparently, Bush still needs to make greater efforts if he doesn't want the Iraq issue to bring uncertainty to his re-election.

The above is a dispatch from Damascus by PD correspondent Wu Wenbin on November 4, and translated by a staff member of People's Daily Online.

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