[Previous entry: "Iraqis Face Winter Shivering by Candlelight"] [Next entry: "A poll governed by fear: millions will get no chance to vote, and the war will go on"]

12/18/2004:

"The Disaster in Iraq"

Amputation rate for US troops twice that of past wars
Boston Globe
US troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of care, according to new data giving the clearest picture yet of the severity of battlefield wounds.

The data are the grisly flip side of improvements in battlefield medicine that have saved many combatants who would have died in the past: Only 1 in 10 US troops injured in Iraq has died, the lowest rate of any war in US history.

But those who survive have much more grievous wounds. Bulletproof Kevlar vests protect soldiers' bodies but not their limbs, as insurgent snipers and makeshift bombs tear off arms and legs and rip into faces and necks. More than half of those injured sustain wounds so serious they cannot return to duty, according to Pentagon statistics.
Full Article: boston.com

Losing Control
by Paul Rogers
The United States assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November 2004, launched just after the American presidential election, was intended to break the back of the insurgency in Iraq. It was heralded by assertions that Fallujah was out of control, that it had become a central logistics base for the insurgency across much of central and northern Iraq, and – not least – that the subjugation of Fallujah would be an essential prerequisite to the Iraqi elections planned for 30 January 2005.

The Fallujah operation was followed almost immediately by vigorous military action against insurgents in other towns and villages in central Iraq. United States strategists, while not persuaded that the taking of Fallujah would bring the insurgency to an immediate end, believed that these actions as a whole would be a decisive turning-point in a war that would otherwise soon be heading towards its third year.

Routes of turmoil

It is now clear that the reality in central Iraq is radically different from these American projections and expectations (see last week’s column in this series, “No direction home”, 25 November 2004). There are five recent indicators of this, which together seem almost to model the developing dangers of the insurgency as a whole.

The first is an apparently minor change of policy reported on 3 December, concerning the route between Baghdad airport and the heavily-protected "green zone" that houses the Iraqi government and the thousands of American officials attached to the US embassy and other agencies. This twenty-kilometre road has now been deemed too dangerous for US government personnel to use. In future, they will be flown to and from the airport by helicopter (see Bradley Graham, "US Embassy Bans Us of Airport Road", Washington Post, 3 December 2004).

The airport highway is nowhere near Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra, Mosul or any other centre of insurgency; it runs through the heart of Baghdad. Yet it has been rendered unsafe, although around 1,000 troops from the US army's 1st cavalry division have been guarding it.
Full Article: opendemocracy.net

Security Checks to Greet Fallujah's Returning Residents
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Dec. 9 -- When the residents of Fallujah begin trickling back to their devastated city, they will be routed through sandbagged checkpoints where U.S. and Iraqi troops will take their fingerprints, issue ID cards and in some cases scan their irises, part of an elaborate plan to keep insurgents out of the former radical militant stronghold.

The first residents to be allowed back in, possibly by Dec. 24, will be heads of households, according to Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, who outlined the plan Thursday. They will be permitted to survey damage to their houses during last month's battle to retake the city and allowed to file claims for compensation.

Five checkpoints have been set up leading into Fallujah, with roads south of the city blocked by sand berms, said Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

All men of military age will be processed using a central database; they will be photographed, fingerprinted and have iris scans taken before being issued ID cards. The entire process should take about 10 minutes per man, Sattler said.

The system has been in use for several months in Iraq, but until now only to catalogue detainees.

No civilian vehicles will be permitted within city limits as a precaution against car bombs, which, along with roadside bombs, are the deadliest weapons in the insurgent arsenal, Sattler said. All cars will be left on the outskirts of Fallujah, and residents will be bused to their homes, district by district.

"Some may see this as a 'Big Brother is watching over you' experiment, but in reality it's a simple security measure to keep the insurgents from coming back," said Maj. Francis Piccoli, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Full Article: washingtonpost.com

More... tomdispatch.com