Update [2004-11-1 8:7:16 by Loudocracy]:As of 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning, this story has not left the blogoshpere. If we want this to be a talking point today, then we're going to have to make it happen ourselves. You know what to do -- start contacting the media NOW.Original story (as updated):
According to
this Salon War Room piece, Newsweek will be reporting tomorrow that Colin Powell believes we're losing the war in Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces "from top to bottom," a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in tomorrow's issue of the magazine, "from decision making to the lower levels."
Update [2004-10-31 17:26:9 by Loudocracy]:Wow, this got recommended, thanks. Anyway, you should definitely read
the whole Newsweek article. It is mainly about the upcoming fight in Falluja, and how the Iraqi National Guard is going to be of no help since they are so iniltrated by the insurgents. There is only a short reference to Colin Powell, in the fourth paragraph:
[Neither] party is fully reckoning with the reality of Iraq—which is that the insurgents, by most accounts, are winning. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former general who stays in touch with the Joint Chiefs, has acknowledged this privately to friends in recent weeks, NEWSWEEK has learned.
Obviously it's the fact that it is Colin Powell here that makes this a headline today, right before the election. But this story is going to reverberate beyond Tuesday as fighting begins in Falluja and the US forces cannot rely on help from the Iraqis. In fact, the most revealing quote from the article actually has nothing to do with Powell.
"The [Iraqi National Guard] guys usually slept outside during the summer," says [Sgt. Jonathan] Scarfe. "When they slept inside, you knew a mortar barrage was coming."