A War on Rewind, in a Bleaker Baghdad

In Iraq, after four years and three months of war, the echoes have begun to echo themselves.

American troops are taking Baghdad's streets back from insurgents. The prime minister has a plan for national reconciliation. To the south, in the "triangle of death," two U.S. soldiers are missing, captives in enemy hands.

Those were the headlines a year ago. Now they're being heard again in the newscasts of today, like some grim rewinding of a movie tragedy, of a story that never ends.

At the White House last June, back from a secretive trip to Baghdad, an upbeat President Bush told reporters assembled in the Rose Garden, "I sense something different happening in Iraq."

It's June again and those roses are once more in bloom. But in Baghdad the scene looks only bleaker.

To a visitor returning after a year, the something different is the spread of concrete blast barriers across ever more of the city, the accumulation of still more rubble, the sectarian "cleansing" of neighborhoods, the ruin of still more lives — of friends whose loved ones have fled, been kidnapped, been killed. And for those left behind, life is worse.

---EOE---

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/19/international/i095546D76.DTL

It keeps moving around. It used to be north between Baghdad, Ramadi and Tikrit. Now they call it the Sunni Triangle.

Then it moved to the west, between Baghdad and Falujah.

Now it's south, between Baghdad and Karbala.

It seems that whenever there's violence, it's always just in "The Triangle of Death"...

...Bush is dragging this war out so he won't loose face by having to admit he has failed.

If just one of those media "experts" stated it as simply and accurate as you it would be refreshing.

Edit: Oops, credited the wrong person. CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent. Thank you for finding it.

have heard and suspected is actually happening in Iraq. It is sooo going downhill. Our presence seems to only make the situation there worse. Our troops have lost enthusiasm for their mission. This reporter returned this year after leaving Iraq about 14 months ago so, it truly sounds like there is a backward movement in that country.