Operation Iraqi Freedom/External links: Beginnings of a quagmire (December 2003)

The Beginnings of a Quagmire in Operation Iraqi Freedom become blatantly apparent in the headlines following the "successful conclusion" of the preemptive war waged by the U.S.-led coalition of the willing in Post-war Iraq. U.S. military activities in the Persian Gulf promises to become a major issue for the U.S. presidential election, 2004.


 * This article covers the time period of December 2003.


 * Also see:
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (January-March 2004)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (November 2003)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire which covers the time period from December 2002 through October 2003.
 * Related SourceWatch Resources


 * Published December 19, 2003: "Faces of Valor: Those killed supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom". Listings can be found both by date and alphabetically.

December 2003
-- Published/Released December 2003
 * 2 December 2003: "U.S. Once Again Showing How Poorly It Grasps Iraq" by William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service: "U.S. commanders say their troops killed at least 54 Iraqis in the northern city of Samarra on Nov. 30. Townspeople say far fewer died, but that they were mostly civilians. Either way, it was a massacre, and the shocking surprise for Americans is that the organized Iraqi troops who provoked the attack are being hailed as heroes."
 * 3 December 2003: "Fox News' Occupation Critic" by David Corn, The Nation: Interview with Major Bob Bevelacqua, a Fox News military analyst. Corn: "What's going wrong in Iraq? Bevelacqua: "We didn't make the transition from a conventional war to an unconventional war. That occurred when President Bush said the major combat is over and now we focus on the rebuilding. We were still fighting in a conventional mindset--war done, move on to the postwar--when we needed to be fighting in an unconventional mindset against what was now an unconventional enemy."
 * 4 December 2003: "Conservative Experts Critique the Occupation" by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service: "'This could go either way,' Kenneth M. Pollack, a former Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), told an audience gathered at the Brookings Institution" on December 2, 2003.
 * 5 December 2003: "Course Twists in Iraq: Report Finds US Invasion Precipitated a Failed State" by Nicholas M. Horrock, UPI. See failed state.
 * 6 December 2003: "Baghdad's U.S. Zone A Stand-In For Home. An Isolated Retreat For Busy Americans" by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post: Several thousand "government workers, contractors and soldiers live and work in what is called the Green Zone. The four-square-mile area, encircled by 15-foot concrete walls and rings of barbed wire, includes Saddam Hussein's presidential palace compound, which is now the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority that rules Iraq. ... Once an oasis of fabulous architecture, date palms and swimming pools, it is now an eerie mix of shiny white trailers, SUVs, Black Hawk helicopters and other symbols of occupation and ruins created by months of bomb, rocket and mortar attacks. ... Some residents say they prefer the comfort of surroundings like home and are happy to stay here, rather than venture out into the real Iraq. But most people say they came to help -- and for the adventure. Their greatest frustration is that they feel trapped inside the Green Zone."
 * 6 December 2003: "Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns" by Dexter Wilkins, New York Times: "As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire. ... In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers.... begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in. ... So far, the new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat to American soldiers. But it appears to be coming at the cost of alienating many of the people the Americans are trying to win over. ... American officials say they are not purposefully mimicking Israeli tactics, but they acknowledge that they have studied closely the Israeli experience in urban fighting. Ahead of the war, Israeli defense experts briefed American commanders on their experience in guerrilla and urban warfare. ...'You have to understand the Arab mind,' Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. 'The only thing they understand is force -- force, pride and saving face.'"  (See Task Force 121 for details.)
 * 7 December 2003: "The war(s) of the US and Israel" by Kronocide, Mother Jones: "The number one lesson that the Americans fail to learn from their Israeli brothers is that Israeli strategy does not work. ... If the Americans wanted a war with an end, they would do what they could to avoid emulating Israeli war tactics."
 * 7 December 2003: "The Decision to Wage War Should Never Be Easy" by Joseph Galloway, St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota).
 * 8 December 2003: "Catastrophic Housing Shortage Threatens Iraq: Official," AFP.
 * 9 December 2003: "Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq" by Julian Borger, Guardian/UK: "'This is basically an assassination programme. That is what is being conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team,' said a former senior US intelligence official, ... 'It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to Ariel Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams.'"
 * 10 December 2003: "Iraq and Vietnam: Battles of will" by Erich Marquardt, Asia Times: "US officials have gone to great lengths to make sure the American people understand that the US military cannot possibly be defeated in Iraq. ... In addition, while Washington cannot be overwhelmed by sheer force, there is no evidence that the guerrilla fighters in Iraq can be defeated that way either. ... In Vietnam, Washington faced a similar predicament. ... While US forces killed and maimed large numbers of the Viet Cong, they never addressed the fundamental land and wealth inequality that led to the popularity of the Viet Cong and the National Liberation Front in the countryside. ... The effective guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong and the NVA were a military strategy in and of themselves, aimed at sapping the political will from the US public."
 * 11 December 2003: "Just Another Week" by Tom Engelhardt, Mother Jones: "...whatever you want, you are what you do. If we destroy the houses of 'suspects,' enclose towns (remember the 'strategic hamlets' of Vietnam?), arrest relatives of wanted insurgents, recruit Saddam's feared former intelligence officers for 'manhunts' (as Donald Rumsfeld evidently loves to call them), and turn our military into so many air and land-based assassination squads, you tell me what we are. ... We've clearly made the decision to contain 'them,' but in the process we're not only forcing whole communities into the arms of the Iraqi resistance, we've enclosed ourselves."
 * 11 December 2003: "We Are Terrorists When We Kill Children" by James Glaser.
 * 11 December 2003: "On Killing Children: An Open Letter to US Military Spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty", Commentary by Buzzflash guest Jeff Guntzel.
 * 11 December 2003: "Bush's Iraq a Magnet for Terrorists - Saudi Envoy" by Alistair Lyon, Reuters: Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, said "Far from quelling a terrorist threat, President Bush's war on Iraq created a new one ... Instead of removing the terrorist threat which President Bush saw in Saddam's Iraq, we find today that Mr Bush's Iraq has become a magnet for terrorists."
 * 11 December 2003: "CIA Plans Iraqi Domestic Spy Service, Newspaper (Washington Post) Reports", Reuters.
 * 11 December 2003: "US forces swoop on Iraqi suspects but death toll rises", AFP: "... the post-war US combat death toll in Iraq neared 200."
 * 11 December 2003: "Military Families Plead for Pullout" by Robert Gutsche Jr, Newsday (New York).
 * 11 December 2003: "U.S. Officers Predict Rise in Assassinations" by Thom Shanker, New York Times: "Military intelligence officials said that in recent days they had gathered evidence in Iraq indicating that anti-American forces might turn increasingly to assassination, in part because allied forces have become practiced at detecting and detonating improvised explosive devices, thus far the weapon most often used in guerrilla attacks. ... [and] because the strengthened American response to the attacks has disrupted, at least temporarily, the planning for more complicated operations against military and government sites."
 * 12 December 2003: "Marines Plan to Use Velvet Glove More Than Iron Fist in Iraq" by Michael R. Gordon, New York Times: "Marine commanders say they do not plan to surround villages with barbed wire, demolish buildings used by insurgents or detain relatives of suspected guerrillas. The Marines do not plan to fire artillery at suspected guerrilla mortar positions, an Army tactic that risks harming civilians. Nor do the Marines want to risk civilian casualties by calling in bombing strikes on the insurgents, as has happened most recently in Afghanistan."
 * 12 December 2003: "Bremer Expects Rise in Violence as Iraq Builds Democracy" by Susan Sachs, New York Times: "Already this month, American forces have adopted aggressive new tactics to flush out their attackers, dropping 500-ton bombs on urban sites believed to harbor guerrillas, setting up barbed wire cordons around villages and arresting relatives of wanted men. ... Commanders have acknowledged that their tactics could further alienate Iraqis."
 * 12 December 2003: "Indignities Endured by U.S. Military: How the Bush Cartel Disrespects and Short Sheets Our Soldiers", a Buzzflash Analysis: "Since Bush declared Mission Accomplished, however, an additional 314 U.S. soldiers have died (as of Dec. 12; for a daily update of military casualties, visit the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count), and 248 of those deaths occurred after Bush taunted, 'Bring them on.' In addition, more than 2,200 troops have been injured, and thousands more have been sent home due to illness or stress."
 * 13 December 2003: "Washington's axis of incoherence" by Jim Lobe, Asia Times: "As the administration of United States President George W. Bush searches increasingly desperately for a viable exit strategy from an Iraqi quagmire, its policy there is appearing ever more incoherent."
 * 14 December 2003: "Father Of Slain Soldier Finds No Joy In Saddam's Capture. Pastor Says Administration Not Upfront On Reason For War", newsnetr.com (Cleveland).
 * 15 December 2003: "Saddam Arrest Cheer Fades Into Iraqi Ire at U.S." by Joseph Logan, Reuters: "Even as news of Saddam's capture sank in, car bombs ripped through two police stations in the capital, the latest in a series of attacks U.S. forces blame on loyalists of Saddam and on foreign 'terrorists' infiltrating Iraq."
 * 15 December 2003: "Resistance to occupation will grow" by Sami Ramadani, Guardian/UK.
 * 15 December 2003: "U.S. Troops Disperse Pro-Saddam Protest in Tikrit", Reuters.
 * 15 December 2003: "Pro-Saddam rallies held in Iraq", cbc.ca.
 * 15 December 2003: "We Caught the Wrong Guy" by William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut.com. A "must read" article.
 * 15 December 2003 (Issue): "Bin Laden's Iraq Plans" by Sami Yousafzai, Ron Moreau and Michael Hirsh, Newsweek: "U.S. troops in Afghanistan may face less resistance as Qaeda leadership diverts fighters to Iraq."
 * 16 December 2003: "News Transcript: Media Availability from Baghdad, Iraq" (Participating was Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander Joint Task Force and Richard Myers, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.): "General Myers, what's your assessment now -- (off mike) -- today of how long American forces will have to remain in Iraq? ... GEN. MYERS: ...I don't think anybody can answer right now. You know, we've got roughly a little less than 130,000 U.S. troops. We've got  about 160,000 Iraqis in various organizations.  We've got about 25,000 coalition.  We're preparing for the next rotation of U.S. forces.  It's likely, though not finally determined, that that number of U.S. forces will be down a little bit, and we'll talk about that as we get into the rotation.  And about as far as we're looking is through the next couple of years.  And beyond that I don't think we can make any judgment at this time.  It's going to have to -- it's going to have to depend on events on the ground, how transition to Iraqi sovereignty goes and lots of items like that, how fast the new Iraqi army stands up, those sorts of things.  So it's to be determined, I think, at this point. ... I'm not saying we're staying for two years.  I'm saying we are prepared to come in with the next rotation of forces, what we call Operation Iraqi Freedom II. They start coming in over the next four months, and it'll be step by step after that."
 * 16 December 2003: "Meanwhile, in Iraq the Slaughter Goes On" by Andrew Buncombe, Independent/UK: "Many had hoped the capture of Saddam Hussein would put an end to the Iraqi insurgency that has been carrying out deadly attacks against US troops and Iraqi targets. Yesterday any such wishfulness was swiftly crushed when suicide bombers killed eight Iraqi policemen and injured at least 30 civilians in two suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad."
 * 16 December 2003: "After the Capture, War's Hard Truths Remain" by Rahul Mahajan and Robert Jensen, Austin American-Statesman: "We need answers."
 * [17 December 2003 http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df12172003.html]: "Despite Claims to the Contrary, Bush Not Doing Everything He Can to Protect Troops," misleader.org.
 * 17 December 2003: "Troops Raid Samarra, Iraq, for Militants" by Aleksander Vasovic, AP: "U.S. troops blasted down the gates of homes, raising cries of women and children inside, and smashed in doors of workshops and junkyards in a massive raid Wednesday to hunt for pro-Saddam Hussein militants and stamp out the increasingly bold anti-U.S. resistance."
 * 17 December 2003: "GIs Draining a Cold Ba'ath" by Niles Lathem, New York Post: "U.S. forces continued to round up key leaders of the Ba'ath Party underground yesterday, arresting 79 terrorists in a raid prompted by intelligence from a prized new informant and documents found in Saddam Hussein's briefcase."
 * 17 December 2003: "Daily Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq," Associated Press (Yahoo! link): "457 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq ... Of those, 313 died as a result of hostile action and 144 died of non-hostile causes,... The British military has reported 52 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each."
 * 17 December 2003: "Saddam, So Not Worth It. Dubya, now that you've got your dime-store thug, can you stop the warmongering and death?" by Mark Morford, SF Gate: "Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers (and counting) and more than 2,500 U.S. wounded (and counting) and more than 10,000 dead innocent Iraqi citizens (and counting) and countless tens of thousands of hapless dead Iraqi soldiers (and counting). ... And it'll only cost U.S. taxpayers at least a staggering $350 billion along with the complete gutting of our foreign policy and our national treasury and the appalling blood sacrifice of our national pride and our international status and global sense of self-respect."
 * 17 December 2003: "U.S. troops smash into homes, shops in major raid to hunt for guerrillas in turbulent city" by Aleksandar Vasovic, Associate Press (Boston Globe).
 * 17 December 2003: "So This Is Liberation?" by Lauren Sandler, The Nation: "Millions of women have found themselves living under such de facto house arrest since the coalition forces claimed Baghdad in April. ... And now, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is creating a growing human rights crisis for women as an extracurricular issue at best, leaving women at the mercy of thugs on the streets and the religious parties that have rushed into the political vacuum."
 * 17 December 2003: "Soldiers Home," TomPaine.com: "Since September, the Pentagon has authorized two-week leaves for soliders in the most extensive R&R program since Vietnam. While the government pays to fly the soldiers to select U.S. airports, soldiers bear the cost of getting home from there--something many can barely afford. ... Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger(D-Md.) has come to their rescue--at least for their R&R--coordinating with airlines to make it easy for people to donate their unused frequent flyer miles to visiting servicemen and women. So far, the Operation Hero Miles program has collected more than 265 million miles of free airfare."
 * 18 December 2003: "The War Will Go on for a Battered Army" by Erin Solaro and Philip Gold, Seattle Times: "Saddam Hussein is history. Trouble is, he has been history for some time now to the jihadi, the foreign adventurers, the remnant Baathist sociopaths and the rest of the anti-American resistance. They're fighting for their own reasons now. They do not need him. The war will go on. ... And this war, if it continues at anywhere near its current intensity, may well cripple the United States Army."
 * 18 December 2003: "'Gold Mine'. Saddam Hussein's Loyalists Infiltrated U.S. Operations in Iraq" by Martha Raddatz, ABC News: "Agents for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have penetrated the U.S. command in Iraq, ABCNEWS has learned. As a result, they have the potential to undermine U.S. authority."
 * 18 December 2003: "Medical evacuations from Iraq near 11,000" by Mark Benjamin, UPI: "The military has made 8,581 medical evacuations from Operation Iraqi Freedom for non-hostile causes [..."bone injuries, surgeries, brain problems, heart illness, mental problems and other non-hostile causes"...] in addition to the 2,273 wounded -- a total of 10,854, according to the new data."
 * 19 December 2003: "Central Asia's great base race," by Stephen Blank, Asia Times: The United States and Russia are in a race to acquire military bases in Central Asia.
 * 19 December 2003: "U.S. Negotiating Over Role of G.I.'s in a Sovereign Iraq" by Thom Shanker and Steven R. Weisman, New York Times: "While the Coalition Provisional Authority is scheduled to go out of business by the middle of next year, military officials have said recently that their forces may have to remain in Iraq for at least 'a couple more years,' in the words of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the American commander in Iraq."
 * 19 December 2003: "US to add 2,000 extra Iraq troops. The United States says it is sending about 2,000 extra troops to Iraq and asking 3,500 more to stay on longer," AFP: "... a massive rotation of forces at the start of next year that will see all 123,000 troops now in Iraq replaced by fresh units."
 * 19 December 2003: "Army reinstates bonus for active-duty GIs who re-enlist while in war zones" by Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes (European edition): "Effective immediately, active-duty soldiers who re-enlist while deployed to Kuwait, Iraq or Afghanistan will receive a tax-free, lump-sum bonus, which for most will exceed $5,000,.. The bonus is the much-anticipated reinstatement of a flat rate, $5,000 sign-up stipend that was in effect for just two weeks in late September."
 * 19 December 2003: "U.S. Troop Strength in Iraq to Spike with Rotation" by Jim Wolf, Reuters.
 * 19 December 2003: "Military Medals and Pentagon Meddlers" by Kurt Campbell and Michael O'Hanlon, Washington Post: "In a move that is increasingly unpopular with some of the nation's military personnel and retired veterans, the Pentagon has decided to award the same campaign medal to those serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. This decision ... is meant to subtly convey a central -- if increasingly controversial -- tenet of their worldview: that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are part of the same seamless global military fight against terror."
 * 20 December 2003: "Wounded Troops Denied Benefits?," CBSNews.com.
 * 20 December 2003: "U.S. Army uses police software to track Baghdad's guerrillas" by Jim Krane, Global Security.
 * 21 December 2003: "Violence in Iraq [against Iraqi civilians] a cycle of retaliation" by Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder: "Although many of those attacked were political and religious leaders or former leaders, it's also unclear who's pulling the triggers or why."
 * 21 December 2003: "Exclusive: The U.S. "May Need a Bigger Army," Donald Rumsfeld tells TIME. Opens Door to Expanding U.S. Military, TIME.
 * 22 December 2003: Gen. Myers "reports capture of 200 Iraqi guerrilla fighters including high officers this week. He said US Iraq force would remain at above 100,000-strong level until end of 2004," DEBKA.com.
 * 22 December/29 December 2003 (Issue): "Winning and Losing" Comment, The New Yorker: "Appalling, intolerable--in all senses, maddening--as the terrorist tactics of the Iraqi insurgents may be, their truck bombs, donkey-cart missile launchers, and sniper rifles are tactical political instruments that have steadily and systematically succeeded in isolating American forces in Iraq. They have effectively driven the United Nations, the international staff of the Red Cross, and other aid groups from the country, and--more disastrously--they have fostered a mutual sense of alienation between the American forces and the Iraqi people they are supposed to be liberating. ... our occupying forces are now clearly on the defensive."
 * 22 December 2003: "Security Hiked After Threat Level Raised" by Jennifer C. Kerr, AP. Comment from Buzzflash.com: "Tom Ridge Proves Howard Dean Was Right When Dean Said Our Country is Less Safe Because of the Iraq War -- and Saddam's Capture Didn't Make a Difference. Threat indicators are 'perhaps greater now than at any point' since Sept. 11, Ridge Said. (12/22/03).
 * 24-30 December 2003 (Issue): "Uncle Sam Wants You, Eh? Our Military Tries to Recruit Canada's Inuit" by James Ridgeway, Village Voice.
 * 26 December 2003: "Iraq: Quicksand & Blood" by Robert Parry, In These Times: "In Iraq, however, U.S. policymakers chose to disband--rather than redirect--Saddam Hussein's army and intelligence services, leaving the burden of counterinsurgency heavily on U.S. occupying troops who are unfamiliar with Iraq's language, history and terrain. ... Now, with U.S. casualties mounting, the Bush administration is scrambling to build an Iraqi paramilitary force to serve under the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council's interior minister. The core of this force would be drawn from the security and intelligence wings of five political organizations, including Ahmad Chalabi's formerly exile-based Iraqi National Congress."
 * 29 December 2003: "The Thinning of the Army," New York Times: "Over a third of the Army's active-duty combat troops are now in Iraq, and by spring the Pentagon plans to let most of them come home for urgently needed rest. Many will have served longer than a normal overseas tour and under extremely harsh conditions. When the 130,000 Americans rotate out for home leave, nearly the same number will rotate in. At that point, should the country need to send additional fighters anywhere else in the world, it will have dangerously few of them to spare. ... This is the clearest warning yet that the Bush administration is pushing America's peacetime armed forces toward their limits."
 * 29 December 2003: "Body Bags Make Reality of War Sink In" by Linda McAlpine, Wisconsin Journal.
 * 30 December 2003: "Bush's Worst Enemy" by James Ridgeway, truthout.org: "You won't hear about Valerie Plame, or her savaged intelligence network that was protecting you. You won't hear about the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You won't hear the names, nor see the faces, of the nearly five hundred American soldiers who have died because of the Bush administration's lies. You won't see the ripped flesh or bloody stumps on the thousands of American soldiers who were torn up because of the Bush administration's lies."
 * 31 December 2003: "Troop rotations in Iraq spur security safeguards. Concerns raised that turnover will present new targets" by Bryan Bender, Boston Globe: "More than 250,000 troops will take to the roads in convoys and be flown in and out of the country in the first four months of 2004, along with an estimated 600,000 tons of equipment, the Pentagon predicts. The movement increases the chances for a spike in attacks from insurgents armed with missiles, rockets, and roadside bombs, the officials said."
 * 31 December 2003: "Troops Heading to Iraq Get Extra Training" by Kimberly Hefling, AP: "The Center for Army Lessons Learned, based at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., conducts interviews about enemy tactics and distributes tips to troops in Iraq and soldiers who are preparing to deploy. The center also provides a continually updated classified Web site with information on enemy tactics. It has produced thousands of handouts on issues such as thwarting convoy attacks."
 * 31 December 2003: "Schofield's Iraq-bound troops learn destination" by William Cole, Honolulu Advertiser: "Army officials said 4,800 Schofield Barracks soldiers heading to Iraq will be operating in a New Hampshire-sized chunk of territory around the northern city of Kirkuk, an oil-rich region where ethnic tensions are on the rise. ... The 9,200-square-mile region populated by Kurds, Turkmen and Muslim Arabs is outside the so-called 'Sunni Triangle' north and west of Baghdad where many attacks on U.S. troops have occurred."
 * 31 December 2003: "Help our citizen soldiers," Denver Post: "With the prospect that citizen soldiers will be doing more of the duty in Iraq next year, there's disturbing news that the Army Reserve and National Guard in these parts can't fill their ranks. ... More so than in the past, citizen soldiers play a critical role in today's U.S. defense policy, augmenting the all-volunteer armed forces of 1.4 million troops during crises. ... About 20 percent of the troops in Iraq are reservists or Guard members. Next year, these troops will total 40 percent of the force. ... The regular military has had no recruiting problems, but some reserve and National Guard organizations have missed re-enlistment and recruiting targets."
 * 31 December 2003: "Return of U.S. war dead kept solemn, secret" by Gregg Zoroya, USA Today.
 * 29 December 2003/5 January 2004 (Issue): "Operation Hearts and Minds. HARD LESSONS: With Saddam behind bars, Iraq is now a test of counterinsurgency, where you can win battles but still lose the war" by Evan Thomas, Rod Nordland and Christian Caryl, Newsweek.
 * 1 January 2004: "Phoenix Rising", American Prospect: "The U.S. occupation of Iraq is beginning to resemble Vietnam in more ways than one. American forces under attack are reportedly responding with indiscriminate fire, often killing combatants and innocents alike. Body counts are disputed, ... Houses of suspected insurgents are being blown up. ... The entire village of Auja, Hussein's hometown near Tikrit, was surrounded by barbed wire and turned into a strategic hamlet, with ID cards issued by U.S. forces needed to enter and exit it."