US Commanders: al-Qaida in Iraq to Stay

[Ghost in the Machine]

US Commanders: al-Qaida in Iraq to Stay
Published: 3/15/08, 3:49 AM EDT
By ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Al-Qaida is in Iraq to stay. It's not a conclusion the White House talks about much when denouncing the shadowy group, known as al-Qaida in Iraq, that used the U.S. invasion five years ago to develop into a major killer.

The militants are weakened, battered, perhaps even desperate, by most U.S. accounts. But far from being "routed," as Defense Secretary Robert Gates claimed last month, they're still there, still deadly active and likely to remain far into the future, military and other officials told The Associated Press.

Commanders and the other officials commented in a series of interviews and assessments discussing persistent violence in Iraq and intelligence judgments there and in the U.S.

Putting the squeeze on al-Qaida in Iraq was a primary objective of the revised U.S. military strategy that Gen. David Petraeus inherited when he became the top commander in Baghdad 13 months ago. The goal - largely achieved - was to minimize the group's ability to inflame sectarian violence, which at the time was so intense that some characterized Iraq as trapped in a civil war.

However, the militants are proving they can survive even the most suffocating U.S. military pressure.

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7816&eeid=5753160&_sitecat=1504&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=ne

[Mad Vulcan]

1. Militiants

Well militants have survived for centuries. They will keep surviving this will not go away in our planets history.