IRAQ: UPRISING

New Zealand Herald: Siege Spells Beginning Of The End For US In Iraq

The situation in Iraq is "disintegration verging on collapse", Richard Holbrooke, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said last month.

It was a month that saw more American troops killed than during last year's invasion, a decisive US defeat in Fallujah, and horrific revelations about the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American and British soldiers.

It may be years yet before the helicopters pluck the last Americans off the roof of the Baghdad embassy, but basically the game is up.
One hundred and thirty-five Americans were killed in Iraq in April, and a thousand wounded.

Meanwhile, any hope of getting the consent of Iraqis to a permanent US military and political presence in the country has gone down the drain.

The siege of Fallujah in response to the killing and mutilation of four American "security contractors" (mercenaries) at the end of March was a blunder that will be studied in military colleges for decades, the lesson being: when there is no way that you can succeed, it is wiser not to reveal your weakness by trying and failing.