The forces opposing the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq total no more than 5,000 insurgent fighters, the top American general in the region said Thursday.
Funny, the leaked CIA report said 50,000. Let’s see, who has more credibility........well, that was a easy decision
| Maybe somebody's having trouble counting zeros... |
Gen. John Abizaid said that despite the relatively small numbers, the insurgent forces have considerable training, funding and supplies. Abizaid said the largest and most dangerous portion of the opposition forces consists of loyalists of ousted president Saddam Hussein. Foreign fighters also pose a threat and are entering Iraq through porous borders. "The goal of the enemy is not to defeat us militarily," Abizaid said in a news briefing from U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida. "The goal of the enemy is to break the will of the United States of America, to make us leave."
While there is evidence that pro-Saddam insurgents, foreign fighters and terrorists are cooperating on a regional level, there is no evidence of national coordination, Abizaid said. "It could develop, but it hasn’t yet," he said.
| I'd call dispatching boom squads to Nasiriyah and Mosul signs of coordination... |
The opposition forces are getting money from stashes left over from Saddam’s regime and from some sources outside Iraq "that are not clear to us," Abizaid said.
I’m sure that some of those sources are very clear, we just are not quite ready to expose them, yet.
| All that money Sammy left lying around is the dough that didn't buy the medicine for all those Iraqi kiddies who died during the sanctions. We never hear about them anymore, do we? Are they still dead? |
Abizaid said the opposition forces can’t drive the U.S.-led coalition out of Iraq through the use of military force. He said the insurgents don’t have much popular support and often hire young, unemployed criminals "to do their dirty work."
| The cannon fodder comes cheaper than the SA7s... |
"It is very important that as we progress militarily, we also progress politically and economically, so as to get these angry young men off the streets," Abizaid said.
"When the Iraqi economy picks up, they can go back to being employed criminals"
American forces have gone on the offensive against the insurgents this week as the attacks have increased in number and lethality. Abizaid said he was confident American forces would prevail. "I want to emphasize to the people that there is no military threat in Iraq that can drive us out," Abizaid said. "We have the best-equipped, best-trained army in the world positioned in the most difficult areas we have to deal with ... They are confident, they are capable, they know what they are doing." More than 100,000 Iraqis now are working as police, border guards, soldiers and militia members, Abizaid said. "They’re not as well-trained as American and coalition forces yet," Abizaid said. "The police, in particular, need a lot of work. It’s important for all of us to understand that these Iraqi forces will take some time to train." |