Word: fallujah
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...dead in Iraq, the wars on terrorism and in Iraq color voters? perceptions of every other issue. Back in April, the economy actually had a solid few months, but voters gave the president no credit for it in the polls, because all eyes were on the escalating bloodshed in Fallujah. Now that Bush has stressed his commander-in-chief credentials for a few weeks, approval of his economic record has risen...
...insurgents in Ramadi - and those were just the major incidents. U.S. casualties have risen every month since the June hand-over of political authority to the interim government of prime minister Iyad Allawi, and the pattern of confrontation is not encouraging. In April, the U.S. military fought insurgents in Fallujah, then battled Moqtada Sadr's men in Najaf in June. The U.S. returned there in August for a second, inconclusive battle and then, in September, found itself once again bombing Fallujah in preparation for another frontal assault. The Sadrists have also created flashpoints in Basra, Nasiriya, Karbala, Samawa...
...officials now concede that the insurgency is far larger than they first imagined, and it is growing both in numbers of fighters and also in the range and boldness of their attacks. And they acknowledge that whole towns in Sunni heartland, such as Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi and Baqubah have been turned by insurgents into no-go areas for coalition forces. One measure of the depth of the security crisis in Iraq is the Bush administration's plan to spend money earmarked for reconstruction instead on urgent security priorities...
...motivated by a strong nationalist sentiment and emboldened by a religious faith both in the righteousness of their cause and the celestial rewards of their "martyrdom." So too are the Sunni insurgents. And thus far, efforts to deploy Iraqi units in the frontline of pitched battles at both Fallujah and Najaf have proven largely ineffective - not because they lack the training to do battle, but because in many instances they lack the motivation to fight under U.S. command against fellow Iraqis. The rate of desertion among Iraqi forces is high, as is the rate of infiltration of these units...
...each instance was that U.S. military actions had the effect of turning more of the civilian population against the American presence - and, by extension, weakening the legitimacy of the government it installed. It's worth remembering that each time U.S. forces pulled back from the confrontations in Najaf and Fallujah, they were being implored to do so by many of the Iraqi politicians they'd put in power...