Brutal Iraq war enters sixth year

During the iron-fisted rule of his all-powerful predecessor, he said, the prisons were full of "innocent prisoners. These cells were Saddam's theatres for torture and brutal crimes."

But five years since then, Iraqis and US and allied forces still face daily attacks from insurgents and Islamist militants, and fighting between armed factions from both sides of Iraq's Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide goes on.

On Wednesday, Talabani summarised the present-day Iraq, saying the path that began five years ago after the fall of Saddam is full of "violence and terrorism" while "corruption has become a dangerous disease."

The war has killed more than 4,000 US and allied soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians -- between 104,000 and 223,000 died between March 2003 and June 2006 alone, according to the World Health Organisation.

"The war has been an unlimited disaster in terms of US foreign policy, in terms of stability in Iraq and in the Middle East," Joost Hiltermann, Iraq expert with the International Crisis Group, told AFP on the telephone from Istanbul.

"I can only hope the US finds a way to navigate itself out of the mess without allowing Iraq to fall apart."

As the conflict entered its sixth year, US President George W. Bush once again defended his decisions that have already cost the administration more than 400 billion dollars in Iraq.

Bush acknowledged that the war has "come at a high cost in lives and treasure," but defended both the decision to invade and to boost the number of US troops in Iraq last year.

"The answers are clear to me: removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision -- and this is a fight America can and must win," he said in a speech at the Pentagon, US military headquarters.

Hours after his speech, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, in a video message, expressed determination to fight US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the "savage acts" of the US-led military coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan "haven't ended the war, but rather (have) increased our determination to cling to our right, avenge our people and expel the invaders from our country."

Baghdadis too are not convinced of a possible victory in Iraq.


Abu Fares al-Daraji, a tobacco shop owner in Baghdad said Americans "brought our way things we never knew (before) like terrorism and the killings
we see on the streets."


More difficult to achieve

Anti-war activists are also not impressed and launched sit-ins and marches across the United States demanding an immediate withdrawal of US soldiers.

"This war needs to end and it needs to end now," Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, told AFP.

Bush has taken heart from signs that the bloodshed in Iraq has fallen, but even the commander of US troops, General David Petraeus, admits that Baghdad has made insuffienct progress towards national reconciliation.

"Scoring a military victory is easy, but a political victory is more difficult to achieve," said Mustapha Alani, director of security ...