A PARALLEL UNIVERSE

As the Iraq war becomes increasingly unpopular within the United States and President George W Bush records exceptionally low approval ratings, the administration needs to redouble its efforts to present the situation in Iraq as one of steady improvement. It can point to the fact that a new prime minister has at last been agreed, while the Pentagon holds back on replacing several thousand troops due to return home from Iraq. The political and media line follows: the trend of events in Iraq is positive, and this will allow plenty of troop withdrawals by the time of the congressional mid-term elections on 7 November 2006.

The reality on the ground in Iraq is very different. The Iraqi government has reported 1,091 people killed in Baghdad alone during April, with car bombings, assassinations and attacks by death squads a daily occurrence. The damage inflicted on American forces has received little media attention in recent weeks, mainly because there have been no major losses in individual incidents. Yet there has been absolutely no let up in the attacks, even as the US military restricts itself much more to large secure bases coupled with movement by air rather than road whenever possible.

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