Marines’ Intel Chief: West Iraq Situation Dire

The chief of intelligence for the Marines in Iraq, a man known for straight-shooting, wrote in a secret report that there is almost nothing U.S. forces can do to prevent the western section of Iraq from descending into total lawlessness.

Washington Post:

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country’s western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin’s classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, “We haven’t been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically—and that’s where wars are won and lost.”

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