US beaten in al-Anbar

Confirmed by the Marine Corps itself

As if the stuff in that last post wasn't enough, there is a follow-up story in the Washington Post today on the US military situation in Iraq's al-Anbar province:

The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.

The Marines recently filed an updated version of that assessment that stood by its conclusions and stated that, as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved, a senior U.S. intelligence official said yesterday. "The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" remain the same, the official said.

The Marines' August memo, a copy of which was shared with The Washington Post, is far bleaker than some officials suggested when they described it in late summer. The report describes Iraq's Sunni minority as "embroiled in a daily fight for survival," fearful of "pogroms" by the Shiite majority and increasingly dependent on al-Qaeda in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance across the capital.

Christ almighty, ``pogroms''!!

``U.S. forces no longer have the option 'for a decapitating strike that would cripple the organization,' the report says.''

All the death and destruction the US has visited on that region over the last three years is a total, colossal failure even on its own merits. See this post for a flavor of how the US has brutalized this area over the years.