Less than two months ago, Dick Cheney insisted that the ongoing war in Iraq is a “remarkable success story.” He, apparently, is the only one who thinks so.
The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department have warned President Bush that the United States and its Iraqi allies aren’t winning the battle against Iraqi insurgents who are trying to derail the country’s Jan. 30 elections, according to administration officials.
The officials, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because intelligence estimates are classified, said the battle in Iraq wasn’t lost and that successful elections might yet be held next month.
But they said the warnings -including one delivered this week to Bush by CIA Director Porter Goss – indicated that U.S. forces hadn’t been able to stop the insurgents’ intimidation of Iraqi voters, candidates and others who want to participate in the elections.
“We don’t have an answer to the intimidation,” one senior official said.
Nor have the United States and interim Iraqi government been able to find any divisions they can exploit to divide and conquer the Sunni Muslim insurgency, the intelligence reports say.
Many of these same officials told Knight Ridder (whose coverage of the war has been second to none) that the administration believes the January elections will be the turning point, which will turn the tide and lead to a victory over the insurgents. But hasn’t the administration been wrong about each of these milestones already?
We were told that the fall of Baghdad would mean the end of the war. Then we were told that the capture of Saddam would effectively end the insurgency. Then we were told the June “hand off” would set everything right. Three key target dates, three occasions that didn’t turn out according to plan. Now it’s the January election that’s going to turn Iraq around. We’ll see.