Military Budget

RAF and navy hardest hit by £4.5bn MoD cuts· Overstretched armed services facing crisis

Treasury proposals to cut £4.5bn from the defence budget over the next three years will be discussed by senior civil servants and military chiefs this week amid warnings that the armed forces are overstretched and facing a crisis.

The cuts are described by a Whitehall insider as the largest since the end of the cold war, and have provoked private fury from military chiefs. They say Britain's soldiers are not properly equipped and are deployed on too many fronts including Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

A senior MoD official has warned that the existing equipment is "unaffordable", that the ministry is heading for a "train crash", and that a budget squeeze risks "mortgaging the future" of the armed forces.

Internal MoD documents show that the armed forces will get a real cash increase of just 0.6% this coming financial year, significantly less than the 1.5% annual average rise over the next three years quoted by ministers. Even the higher figure would have meant cuts of more than £1bn a year.

The squeeze on the defence budget is even more severe because the cost of weapons systems is increasing much more than the costs of other goods and services, defence officials say.

Its crazy, the British government has comitted our armed forces in two major conflicts yet they want to cut the defense budget. Either the government fully commits money to it and we like turn into Prussia or we pull out and reduced our military to a Scandanavian model, a token force with perhaps a special ops section. The government is living in fantasy land if it thinks it can do war's on the cheap.

Britain is living beyond its means and its military commitments far outweight our relative importance in the grand scheme of things. We're a two bit ex imperial backwater and we need to stop behaving like we're still a major world power, we ain't and the sooner we accept this reality the better we will be.

The Ongoing Iraq Occupation

IRAQ-SYRIA: Lack of money, visa problems prompting Iraqi refugees to return home

DAMASCUS, 22 November 2007 (IRIN) - Lack of funds and the Syrian government’s refusal to renew their visas, more than the perception of improved security in Iraq, are prompting some Iraqi refugees in Syria to return to Iraq, according to personal refugee accounts and figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The Iraqi government recently announced that 46,000 refugees returned to Iraq in October, mostly from Syria, while a Syrian immigration source said that between 1 October and 19 November 60,000 people had returned to Iraq.

Some media reports and Iraqi government officials have suggested the refugees are returning because of improved security following the US military “surge” earlier this year.

However, in a report released on 22 November, the UNHCR - which interviewed 110 Iraqis in Syria this week - found that only 14 percent of respondents said they were returning to Iraq because they believed the security situation had improved, as opposed to 70 percent who cited financial and visa reasons.

Iraq sees "catastrophe" with new cholera cases

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is facing a health "catastrophe" in the capital Baghdad, with reports of cholera rising sharply over the past weeks to more than 80 new cases, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Most of the new cases have been reported in the eastern part of Baghdad, especially in poor areas routinely deprived of water and other basic services, an official at the ministry said.

Doesn't that give you the warm fuzzies

these Iraqi refugees are going back to Iraq, not because it is safer but because they have no money

and they will most likely end up dead, either from cholera, bombs, death squads or disappearing into prisons.

Whats even worse is how this was all predicted before the invasion, but the war cheerleaders chose to ignore, its sickening.

Iraq's History

IRAQ: No trace found for thousands of manuscripts U.S. troops discovered in 2003

Thousands of manuscripts have disappeared among them priceless copies of the Holy Koran, an Iraqi librarian said.

The librarian, who wanted his name kept secret, said the manuscripts were "expropriated" by a U.S.-led force shortly after the 2003 invasion of Baghdad.

The former government had moved the manuscripts from the national library shelves to a cellar close to the Umm al-Teboul mosque in Baghdad for fear of damage or theft.

The librarian said the troops removed the manuscripts from the cellar but there is no trace of them.

He said there were about 50,000 manuscripts in the national library which were all moved to the cellar. The collection, he added, was "the largest and the most valuable in the whole Middle East."

Of the most valuable manuscripts that have gone missing is a copy of the Holy Koran hand-written by Imam Ali only a few years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.

"There was a Koran written on snake skin. The miniature copy was no more than a few centimeters wide," said the librarian.

Makes me cry when I think what has happened to Iraq's antiquities

The destruction and thieving and general philistine behavior. Bit by bit Iraq is losing its past and may never get it back.

I guess it suits the Bush Junta that Iraq would have no history, all the better for their delusions of creating 'democracy'. I would of thought it would of been one of the major priorities after the invasion to secure ancient artifacts and archaeological sites. This taps into their utter failure to create any form of security post invasion, spending too much time sitting in rooms dreaming up ways to privatize Iraq's industries or downloading traffic plans from the internet. The fact decisions were left to people who had no experience in this area, instead handing it over to lickspittles, toadies, flunkies, ideologically pure types, etc. and thus we are at the situation we have today in Iraq.

Iraq

Employment centers have names of more than 1 million jobless Iraqis

By Ahmad al-Taai

Employment and training centers across the country have to deal with an army of jobless Iraqis whose numbers have recently shot to more than 1.2 million, a statement by the ministry of labor and social affairs said.

The massive jobless figure includes only those who have registered with these centers in the hope of finding a job.

Ministry officials estimate that the jobless figure maybe twice that number as many unemployed Iraqis simply do not bother to register with these centers.

The statement said only 101,890 names in the country’s bloating jobless books were women.

The figure also does not include the nearly two million Iraqi refugees almost all of them jobless who have fled to neighboring states.

You know I wonder if the Bush Junta has even considered the link between unemployment and the insurgency?

because people without jobs end up a) having lots of spare time on their hands and b) creates resentment, which the various insurgency groups can use as a recruiting tool.

Iraq

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal

Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.

"I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."

Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.

One of the biggest mistakes post invasion was the lack of attention payed to law and order.

Instead the CPA spent most of their time in a deluded bubble thinking they were creating Iraq in the American mold, I mean focusing on fucking traffic rules, trivial stuff

Another error was allowing most of the major ministries to be looted, disbanding the Iraqi army and getting rid of all Baath party members, I mean how stupid do you have to be to get rid of those who knew how to run the country! The answer is quite stupid, since many of the members of the CPA were Republican party loyalists with little or no experience in post conflict reconstruction, while experts were dismissed or had their job made very difficult if it didn't follow the party line.

The fawning over the exiles at the expense of those who had stayed in Iraq and the way the CPA actually created sectarian tensions or at least contributed to it, by splitting the Iraqis into Kurds, Shias and Sunnis,the way there was guilt overload in giving everything to Kurds and Shias at the expense of pissing off former power holders the Sunni's. You would of thought the CPA would of done their best to keep the Sunni's happy somehow, or just be a little bit more understanding

Disbanding the Iraqi army, there you have the nucleus of the insurgency, along with disgruntled Sunnis, followed by an influx of foreign fighters. On top of that the US is funding militias against each other and against the insurgency, adding fuel to an already massive sectarian fire and what happens when the militias use US made guns on their former US allies?

Anti War

March on parliament to defy Stop the War ban, says Tony Benn

Tony Benn and Labour national executive member Walter Wolfgang are set to defy the law and lead a banned anti-war march down Whitehall to parliament next Monday—the day Gordon Brown has promised to deliver a statement on Britain's presence in occupied Iraq.

Benn states, "I will be marching. It is entirely up to the police and government what they do."

Comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas also pledged to defy the ban.

Musician Brian Eno warned that the government hoped the ban would keep the issue of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan "off the agenda".

He warned that legal powers would be used to sideline protests over any military adventure against Iran.

Quite amazing no?

Gordon Brown's government rushes to support the monks who were protesting in Burma but at the same time are doing their best to stifle anti war protests at home.

Iraq 2

Two million displaced inside Iraq

Nearly two million Iraqis have fled their homes for other parts of Iraq since the US-led invasion, creating a "human tragedy without precedence," the country's Red Crescent said.

Most of them are women and children - poor, sick, suffering from malnutrition - with little access to the country's health infrastructure or basic services.

The United Nations estimates that a further two million have fled their homeland completely, travelling to Syria, Jordan and other neighbouring countries.

According to the Red Crescent report released on Saturday, the number of displaced people increased by some 71 percent in August compared to the previous month, with most of the rise taking place in Baghdad.

The capital now had nearly one million displaced people for an estimated total population of four to five million, it said. There are 1,930,946 internally dispaced

Nice going Bush Junta! Over a million Iraqis dead and another billion displaced.

In fact I'm surprised there are any Iraqis still in Iraq

What with the cholera, starvation, lack of basic services, daily car bombings, being shot to death by US Forces or the various militias, driven out of their homes, kidnappings etc.

Iraq

Willard: It's a way we had over here with living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

U.S. Paratroopers Seek to Win Hearts

BAGHDAD (AP) - Six Humvees rolled into one of the poor neighborhoods that share Baghdad's northern fringe with groves of date palms, and school teacher Mustafa Hassan climbed out to tears, hugs and kisses.

Hassan had been detained by the U.S. military for five months on suspicion of involvement in insurgent activity, but his innocence was championed by an American paratrooper lieutenant and now he was being delivered home with respect.

In this remote corner of Baghdad, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade, many on their third Iraq tour, are trying to leave their mark in a war defined as much by perceptions of conduct as by battlefield exploits.

Hassan's case illustrates the competing needs of quelling violence and reaching out to Iraqis.

Yeah reaching out to Iraqis - Babel, Sept 22, 2007 (VOI) – U.S. forces killed a family of seven members including women and children on suspicion they belonged to one of the militias in al-Iskandariya district, 50 km north of Babel province, an official police source in Babel said. Best of luck with that!

Brave New Iraq

A few more 'successes' for the Bush Junta and their fellow travelers:

IRAQ: Ethnic violence forces more Arabs to flee Kirkuk

KIRKUK, 16 September 2007 (IRIN) - Iraqi Arab residents of the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, some 250km from Baghdad, say scores of Arab families are fleeing the city as ethnic violence increases there.

“The attacks on our community have worsened since February 2007. We are being forced to leave the city almost empty-handed and the government isn’t taking any action to support us,” said Ali Akram Mahmoud, a spokesperson for Kirkuk’s Arabs Association (KAA), formed in 2003 with the aim of safeguarding the rights of Arabs who had settled in the city.

“The number of [Arab] families fleeing the city has increased by 20 percent on previous years. Their flight will seriously affect the upcoming referendum in which Kurds will have a majority not because of their numbers but because, with guns in their hands, they will have forced all Arabs to flee the city. It is absolutely unfair,” he said.

The December 2007 Kirkuk status referendum is due to decide whether the city becomes part of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

“The most common scene in Kirkuk is of families filling cars with their relatives and fleeing the city in the early morning,” said Jihad Muhammad, a political analyst at Mustansiriyah University.

IRAQ: Diyala the worst province for basic services

BAQUBAH, 16 September 2007 (IRIN) - Diyala province, on Iraq’s eastern border with Iran, is the scene of some of the worst violence in Iraq today, making the province’s shortages of basic services worse than anywhere else in the country, according to the local council and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“Few schools are functioning properly, with few numbers of teachers and students. Hospitals lack essential supplies as the militants and insurgents fight over them. On top of that, some police stations are under the control of local militias,” Fatah Ahmed, a spokesman for the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), said.

Again I ask how can you pro war people contiue to support this occupation?

Iraq and Iran

US plans military base near Iran

The Pentagon plans to build a military base near the Iran-Iraq border, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper quoted a senior US army commander as saying that the base will be used to try and prevent the flow of weapons by Shia fighters into Iraq.

Major-General Rick Lynch, the commander of the US army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said that the Pentagon also plans to build checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad.

X-ray machines will be installed, as well as explosive-detecting sensors, the paper reported.

Well this news is pretty ominous, time to find my tinfoil hat. I think its a dead cert that Iran is going to be bombed, if not by the USA then by Israel and probably Saudi Arabia will give it tacit support, as they dislike Iran challenging their position in the Middle East.

Iraq

Britain 'backed US decision to disband Saddam's army'

The British Government and military high command fully supported the controversial US policy of disbanding Saddam Hussein's armed forces after the 2003 invasion, according to Washington's former proconsul in Baghdad, Paul Bremer.

Stung by remarks from President George Bush that he alone had been responsible for one of the most disastrous mistakes of the war while running the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Mr Bremer went to some lengths to set the record straight yesterday and provided previously unknown details of British support for the US policy.

British military officers were also enthusiastic supporters of the policy of de-Baathification – or sacking members of Saddam's Baath party from the security services, according to Mr Bremer. The policy, which he still defends, has been blamed for creating a security vacuum which enabled a Sunni as well as an al-Qa'ida insurgency to take hold. In a searing opinion article in yesterday's New York Times, Mr Bremer tried to defend himself from becoming the scapegoat for the administration's failures in Iraq.

No shit sherlock! I've blogged many times about how disbanding the local elites will only cause trouble for a occupying force. The Iraq Occupation sowed the seeds of its current problems in the first few days after the invasion, with policies like De-Baathification.

Riverbend on Arriving in Syria: The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness... How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death? How is it that a border no one can see or touch stands between car bombs, militias, death squads and... peace, safety? It's difficult to believe- even now. I sit here and write this and wonder why I can't hear the explosions. I wonder at how the windows don't rattle as the planes pass overhead. I'm trying to rid myself of the expectation that armed people in black will break through the door and into our lives. I'm trying to let my eyes grow accustomed to streets free of road blocks, hummers and pictures of Muqtada and the rest... How is it that all of this lies a short car ride away?

Syria recently has decided to close their border to Iraqi refugees, a consequence of the badly run occupation.

If Iraqis find selling their blood doesn't make them any money, then they can turn to the drug trade in the New and Improved Iraq -

BAGHDAD, 6 September 2007 (IRIN) - Abu Teif, 52, is a drug seller. Previously unemployed and living in poverty, he got into drug dealing to support his family - three children and a handicapped wife.

Iraq

Iraq rescuers sift through rubble after suicide blasts that killed 200

Rescuers were today digging through the muddy ruins of clay houses in north-west Iraq where suicide bombers last night detonated fuel tankers rigged with explosives, killing at least 200 members of a minority sect.

The incident near the Syrian border was one of the deadliest since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

More than 300 people were injured, said Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar, when the fuel tankers blew up in the remote villages of Kahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair. Officials today imposed a curfew on the area.

The villages are about 75 miles west of the city of Mosul, a stronghold of Sunni Islamic militants. The attacks targeted people from the Yezidi religious minority, whom Sunni extremists regard as infidels.

All the 'surge' has done is pushed the violence out of Baghdad and into the provinces, easier targets for the insurgents, in this case the Yezidi.

There is no success in Iraq and those who delude themseleves that everything is going swimmingly should be ashamed.

Friday Thoughts

*puts on tinfoil hat*

I get a definite 1914 vibe from the Middle East and at my most pessimistic I think Iran is going to be bombed, with disastrous consequences for the rest of the Gulf region.

I only get this feeling because they are insane enough to do it, Neocons have been gagging for this and have already started doing what they did with Iraq, building up, giving it serious thought.

I mean everyone knew it was a stupid idea to invade Iraq but they went ahead anyway.

*takes off tinfoil hat*

Thoughts for Today

You know Iran really shouldn't be bombed.

There is already an undercurrent from its youth for reform and change, chafing against the religious conformity, Iran is a very young country with most of its population under the age of 25, eventually the old guys at the top are going to die off.

Everyone forgets Iran had elections, so alright the clerics choose to ignore them but still why is it condemned when Saudi is even more despotic or Egypt which is just as repressive, and yet they are regarded as moderate.

If it was bombed, all it would do is strengthen the claims of the nutcases in the Iranian government.

I think its quite appalling that bombing Iran is even being discussed in the media by the very same people who advocated invading Iraq, which has proven a huge failure, just this week the US has managed to lose 190,000 weapons, why are they still considered credible experts?

Hypocrisy

Iran attacks U.S. plans for Saudi arms deal

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the United States on Monday of seeking to create fear and divisions in the Middle East after reports Washington was readying major arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

A U.S. defence official said in Washington on Saturday the package could be worth some $20 billion over the next 10 years.

Washington is striving to assure its Gulf allies concerned by the growing strength of Shi'ite Muslim Iran and the war in Iraq that it is committed to the region and will stand by them, with arms sales being part of that process, U.S. officials say.

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the United States was trying to "create a fake arms race in order to make their big arms companies survive", the official IRNA news agency reported.

Fablous, an arms race in the Middle East, just what the area needs.

Curious state of affairs though considering that Saudi Arabia are believed to be funding the Sunni insurgents in Iraq to combat the rising power of the Shiites there, yet the US is giving them a $20 billion arms deal to a country run by the biggest bunch of crooks in the Middle East, a country which treats it women like shit, a batshit insane religious police and really awful human rights abuses.

This just goes to show what bullshit it is when the Bush Junta and their Neocon fuckheads are when they go on about 'democracy on the march', they don't care about the ordinary people of the Middle East, they are quiet happy to call Arab countries which serve their purpose 'moderate' like Saudi Arabia and Egypt but god forbid you step out of line, your branded a 'rogue nation'.

More 'Success' to Chalk up to the Bush Junta

8 Million Iraqis in Immediate Need
New Oxfam Report Appeals to Global Community for Help

According to the report, more than eight million Iraqis are in desperate need of immediate humanitarian assistance:

* Four million Iraqis – 15% - regularly cannot buy enough to eat.

* 70% are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% in 2003.

* 80% do not have access to proper sanitation.

* 43% live on less than a dollar a day.

* 28% of children are malnourished, compared to 19% before the 2003 invasion.

* 92% of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

* 90% of the country's hospitals lack basic medical supplies.

* More than 15% are either internally or externally displaced.

As a result of the lack of adequate nutrition or clean water, resulting illnesses, particularly diarrhoeal diseases, have been on the rise.

This is the result of not planning or even thinking about the aftermath of a military invasion, and still the war supporters contiue to claim that Iraq is a country full of painted schools, what a delusion that proved to be and continues to be for them. To even point out what a clusterfuck Iraq is, opens you up to abuse, of being called a 'terrorist sympathies' or an 'islamocommiefascist', their depth of denial and ignorance continues to appall me.

Iraq

Shahrastani: No Legal Oil Unions in Iraq

Unions Object to Draft Hydrocarbons Law, Call for Shahrastani's Resignation

WASHINGTON, DC (UPI) -- Iraq's oil minister said Iraq's oil unions are not legitimate and have no more standing in the debate over the oil law than an ordinary citizen.

"There are no legal unions in Iraq," Hussein al-Shahristani said Wednesday in response to a question about various factions' positions on the controversial oil law. "Those people who call themselves representatives of the oil workers have not been elected to the position."

Shahristani spoke to UPI by phone from Baghdad.

The lone remaining law from the Saddam Hussein regime kept by U.S. occupying powers and the successive Iraqi government is the one that bans worker organizing in the public sector.

It is a certainty that the oil companies operating in Iraq insisted that workers be prevented from forming unions.

So lets tally up the 'successes' of the Bush Junta's foray into Iraq

• declining rights for women
• sectarian violence
• near slave labour
• banning unions
  
• little or no infrastructure
• a mountain of bodies which would make Tamlerlane blush
• massive displacement of Iraqi refugees
  

Iraq

Despite Crackdown, Labor Abuses Persist

Low-Wage Workers on US-Funded Projects in Iraq Endure Dismal Conditions

Despite US measures designed to halt labor abuses perpetrated by contractors working on US-funded projects in Iraq, anecdotal evidence indicates serious problems persist.

American civilian sources working at military camps report low-wage contracted laborers having limited access to medical care, crowded and decrepit living quarters, and questionable food. Some were reportedly tricked into working in Iraq, and accounts of contractors holding employees' passports continue, despite an April 2006 order from the US military specifically barring the practices.
(snip)
One worker suffering from diarrhea and vomiting was reportedly told the condition couldn’t be too severe since the employee had worked all day before reporting it. The doctor told the worker to “deal with it or go back” to Sri Lanka. “I asked one if he had any paperwork and he had none,” the contractor said.

Describing a photograph of the typical meal of mostly rice with a side of slop served to low-wage contract workers, the contractor commented: “This picture is of their food today. This is apparently a good day (with) double the usual meat portions.... The days are hit-and-miss whether they get vegetables.”

Hows that for progress! near slave labour, war cheerleaders don't concern themseleves with abuse of workers. 19th century imperialism is alive and well in Bush Junta's Iraq.

The occupation of Iraq has seen deteriorating conditions for women there as the conservative fundamentalists elements take over, its ironic how the invasion of Iraq has probably set womens rights there back 20, 30 years. Chalk it up another 'success' for those who argued for war.

Women Increasingly Targeted for Violence

Rights Activists, Aid Workers Victims of Conservative Religious Mores

BAGHDAD, 24 July 2007 (IRIN) - Haifaa Nour, 33-year-old president of the Women’s Freedom Organisation (WFO), one of the few women’s rights organisations in Iraq, said the threatening letters she had recently been receiving would not deter her from her job, even if it cost her her life. However, she acknowledged that for a woman activist the risks of doing humanitarian work were increasing daily.

“After the US-led invasion in 2003, women’s rights were well recognised... but unfortunately in the past two years our situation has deteriorated and the targeting of activists and women aid workers has increased, forcing dozens to give up their jobs,” Haifaa said.

“I know my life is under threat and I might be killed at any time especially for refusing to wear a veil or other traditional clothes, but if I do so, I will just be abetting the extremists,” she said.

They neither cared for the welfare of workers nor womens rights, all they wanted was to live out their computer game fantasies, fulfill their bloodlust and fill their coffers. It beggars belief that the Bush Junta and their Neocon tossers did not plan for the after effects of the invasion, instead having a deluded vision of Iraqs tossing flowers and hugging them, instead it is IEDs and car bombs.

Iraq and the British Army

UK troop reserves 'almost gone'

The head of the Army has warned that British troops are so stretched that the nation's military reserves are "almost non-existent".

In the memo, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, General Sir Richard Dannatt said the Army was undermanned because of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He also said vital equipment was being used "at the edge of sustainability".

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the forces were working hard but the current situation was "manageable".

General Dannatt also said the Army has "almost no capability to react to the unexpected".

Britain isn't leaving Iraq because of the politics, a lack of will amongst politicians and no doubt they are freaked out about somehow damaging their influence with America.

To every other person it makes sense to get out of there as soon as possible. All British troops are doing is remaining in their bases, not doing anything of consequence.

Iraq


Many died instantly in the busy market, but others were trapped under the rubble of destroyed homes.

Deadly blasts hit Iraq

A suicide truck bomber has killed 23 Iraqi army recruits and wounded 27 others after he rammed into their vehicle while they were travelling on a road south of Baghdad, police and an army official said.

They said the incident on Sunday took place near the town of Haswa.

Two other blasts, nearly simultaneous car bombs, left at least eight people dead in Baghdad's Karrada district.

The twin car bombs struck around 10:30am (07:30GMT). The first exploded near a restaurant that was closed at the time.

You don't need to be a brain surgeon to realize that just because the bombing has been reduced in Baghdad, the insurgents are just going to bomb somewhere else less protected.

The US simply has not got enough troops to stop the insurgents transporting and setting off car bombs.