Insurgent attacks misfire

DefenseLINK:

...

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, the insurgents seem to be targeting innocent Iraqis rather than trying to go against coalition targets. Roughly half of all attacks inflict no or minimal damage. (Emphasis added.)

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.


This seems to be an under reported aspect of the war. Even failed attacks are reported as significant when they clearly are not by any reasonable standard of measurement. Virtually all attacks now are acts of impotence by a force that is afraid to mount attacks of significance.

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