The Iraqi's have faced a lack of gasoline, electricity and water among other things for the past 20 years unless you were among Saddam's favorite Sunni area's. Because terrorist have the mere ability to mount these attacks does not mean coalition forces are losing the war. Iraq is going to be an unstable area for a signficant period of time and there will be more problems and shortages from time to time, some because of terrorist acts, others because of problems do to the age of the infrastructure.
One of the problems with media is that things that are positive rarely get reported.
The number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire in August fell by 40% from the numbers that were killed by hostile fire in July. Yet not one media outlet mentioned this! The media simply focused on the fact that the number of overall deaths, regardless of cause, had surpassed the number that died in the war from March 19 to May 1. This gives most people in the public the mistaken impression, that Saddam Loyalist and Terrorist have killed more US troops than in the war up to May 1. This is FALSE.
115 US troops were killed by hostile fire from March 19 to May 1. Since May 1, 68 US troops have been killed by hostile fire. 7 in May, 17 in June, 26 in July, 16 in August, and 2 in September.
While every death is a tragedy no matter the cause, the ones that give an indication has to how well or how bad the operation is going, are the ones that are do to hostile fire.
Also, the number of deaths do to non-hostile fire since May 1 are less than the number of deaths do to non-hostile fire in the build up to the first Gulf War from August 1990 to January 1991. Over 100 US troops died from non-hostile causes in Saudi Arabia during that time period.
Another factor which shows that Coalition forces are winning is the capture or killing of 42 of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's regime. In addition, there have been hundreds if not thousands of other low level personal that have been caputured in addition to large stock piles of weapons and ammo.
Another factor which shows that Coalition forces are winning is the fact that there is no major civil war or fighting between the various religious and ethnic groups. Back in the 1990s, I once got to talk to former National Security Council Staff member Richard Hass. He described the problem of overthrowing Saddam as Lebanon and Bosnia times 10. There was strong evidence to suggest that by this time, coalition forces would be involved in stopping a civil war that was killing thousands of people. That has not happened and it is do to the hard work of coalition troops, civil affairs officers and other specialist.
An important factor that will start to improve the situation in Iraq even more, is the training of new Iraqi Police officers and a new Iraqi Military. This is going to take time though. But I predict that in the next 18 months, 200,000 Iraqi Police Officers and Military personal will be trained. These trained Police and Soldiers will be very effective in working with the various local populations to root out foreign terrorist and Saddam loyalist. As this Iraqi Police/Military force continues to grow the number of coalition troops needed for a variety of security operations will decrease.
During the year that my father was in Vietnam in 1968, an average of nearly 300 US troops were killed in combat every 7 days. I bring this point up only because there have been some in the media and other places that have compared the US intervention in Iraq to Vietnam. Iraq and Vietnam are not even remotely the same.
There is a lot of hard work left in Iraq. It is going to take years to develop a strong functioning government and society. There are going to be more terrorist attacks. Those that support Saddam and the goals of Al Quada are going to do everything they can to disrupt the building of a democratic and stable Iraq. But as long as the Coalition stays the course and continues to supply the resources necessary to build Iraq, Iraq will eventually develop into a stable democracy.
This is necessary for long term global and regional security. Ken Pollack has stated that an Iraq that is able to defend itself from Iran and Syria will always be technically able to overrun Kuwait and Saudi Arabia barring heavy outside intervention. This is why a , stable democratic Government that respects its neighbors, must be developed in Iraq. It is the key to a stable and peaceful Persian Gulf which is a must for global security and the economic health of the planet.