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beltman713
08-09-2005, 08:21 PM
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16211928%255E1702,00.html

Insurgency could get worse: Rumsfeld

From correspondents in Washington
10aug05

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned today that violence in Iraq could worsen, comparing insurgents to desperate Nazi SS officers and Japanese kamikaze pilots at the end of World War II.

Insurgents were desperate to stop political progress in Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld said, following one of the bloodiest weeks for US forces since the US-led invasion in 2003.

"I think it's reasonable to expect that violence could, again, increase for a time, as it did during the last elections," Mr Rumsfeld said, looking ahead to a referendum on a new constitution in October and elections in December.

"As allied forces (pushed) forward in both the European and Pacific theatres in World War II, the enemy's tactics, such as the cult of death among SS forces and the kamikazes in the Pacific, led to some of the bloodiest fighting of that war," Mr Rumsfeld said.

"But those deadly acts, and they were deadly, proved not to be harbingers of victory."

Mr Rumsfeld cautioned that observers should not "draw the wrong conclusion" over any spike in violence.

"As long as the Iraqi people persevere, the terrorists cannot win," he said.

Senior Bush administration officials have repeatedly argued that the insurgency in Iraq is losing ground as political developments progress.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview released on Sunday that the insurgency in Iraq was "losing steam".

"It's a lot easier to see the violence and suicide bombing than to see the rather quiet political progress that's going on in parallel," she said.

Vice President Dick Cheney sparked controversy in June when he said the insurgency was in its "last throes".

Forty US soldiers have died in violence in Iraq in the last 12 days, bringing the total US death toll to 1821, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures.


(Beltman713: In other words, they probably know it is going to get worse, they are just preparing us and making their excuse)