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Monday, December 16, 2013

Iraq Is Still Bleeding 10 Years After Saddam Hussein's Capture

Friday's anniversary of the dictator's arrest sees the country struggling with a resurgent al-Qaeda and a death rate double that of a decade ago

Ten years after the capture of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is at risk of becoming a failed state again as al-Qaeda reclaims vast swathes of the country.

Friday’s anniversary of the Iraqi dictator’s arrest sees the country still struggling with his legacy, with al-Qaeda launching a fresh campaign of terrorist atrocities from new territory carved out in western and northern Iraq.

Backed by jihadists fighting the civil war in neighbouring Syria, the group is trying to create an “emirate” straddling the two countries, taking advantage of the collapse in security across the border.

Bridges linking four key border towns on the Iraqi side have been dynamited, making it difficult for security forces to operate in the area.

Road signs have even been put up proclaiming it to be the turf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the name for the joint Syrian-Iraqi al-Qaeda franchise.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hussein KILLED terrorists when he caught them.There is no other way to handle them.

Anonymous said...

Should have turned it into a new disney world, while we had the chance. You can't rebuild in the middle east.

Anonymous said...

Yeah...Bush probably should have thought that through a little better. Mission Accomplished!

Anonymous said...

11:04 it was the obama administration that blew the deal to maintain security forces in iraq after the war. this had always been the plan so that this would not happen. the entire middle east is a complete mess due to the brilliance of this administration. keep blaming bush

Anonymous said...

Really. You're going to blame this on Obama? When Bush invaded an entire country based on complete lies. Had no exit strategy at all, a naive hope that we'd be in and out and leave with a New Democratic government intact? What a fantasy. Obama did the best we could hope for. Get us the hell out of there and quit losing lives and treasure. And if we were still there, things would be a hell of a lot worse since Americans would be dying there every day and we'd be blaming Obama for that.

Anonymous said...

It was indicated that this would happen after we left.....doesn't matter who you blame.....we didn't leave properly - the locals were not in control when we departed.

Anonymous said...

Lest we not forget that WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Keep blaming Obama though.

Anonymous said...

But Bush blamed the debacle on intel.In reality the intel was spot on.He just wanted a war apparently.He banned the release of that so called misleading intel afterwards.2016 will mark 16 years of the worst presidency this country has ever known.

Anonymous said...

lol yeah according to you fiscal conservatives we should have just parked 100k+ troops there for another 10 yrs. It's not like these folks haven't been fighting each other for 1000 yrs.