This is good news for us and bad news for the Terrorist..
WASHINGTON, April 21, 2005 – It's difficult to know whether the uptick in attacks on Iraqi and coalition targets in Iraq is a trend or an aberration, said Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita today.
“Every commander we talked to in Iraq … believes that … the development of the Iraqi security forces is proceeding in an effective and appropriate fashion,” Di Rita said.
Intelligence is getting better and the ability to interdict attacks is getting better. Still, the enemy is running out of time. With the installation of an Iraqi government, the enemy can no longer say it is attacking an occupying force, he said. There are now almost 156,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security forces.
The number of attacks per day is in the 50 to 60 range. This is well down from the period just before Iraqi elections in January. However, theterrorist seem to be targeting innocent Iraqis rather than trying to go against coalition targets. Roughly half of all attacks inflict no or minimal damage.
Iraqis themselves are stepping forward and working to stop or disrupt attacks. “There’s a sense that the attackers recognize that they are increasingly being identified as people who are against what most Iraqis want, and so there will be a desire to grab headlines with more spectacular attacks,” Di Rita said.
Commanders are mindful of the pitfalls and the possible changes in enemy tactics. “But there isn’t a commander over there who doesn’t think there is progress and the Iraqi security forces are getting better,” he said.
OK this seems to me to be a good example of what you are not being told in the mainstream media. Think, there are 50-60 attacks a day, yet you only hear of maybe 1, and only when it involves an American being wounded or killed. The vast majority of the attacks injure and kill Iraqi's not TF members. The Iraqi Troops are taking more and more of the daliy operations and doing a better and better job of it. How effective are the terrorist attacks when roughly half do no damage? Anyone who argues that things are not getting better and better for the Iraqi people were never there prior to the war.