UN: Decline In Iraq Violence May Not Last

From the ever-hopeful Associated Press:

Men arrested guarding a huge arms and ammunition cache squat blindfolded and tied near Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 15, 2008.

UN: Less Iraq violence may not continue

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press

BAGHDAD - The influx of thousands of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad, but violence elsewhere in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations said Saturday.

As security improved in Baghdad, violent attacks spread last year to other parts of the country, including Diyala Province and Mosul, al-Qaida’s last urban stronghold, according to the report from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

“The government of Iraq continued to face enormous challenges in its efforts to bring sectarian violence and other criminal activity under control against a backdrop of political instability,” the report, which examined the last six months of 2007, said.

“This is a window of opportunity for Iraq,” Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. chief in Iraq, said at a news conference in Baghdad.

The U.S. military has said a 60 percent reduction in attacks followed the influx of more than 20,000 additional troops, known as the surge…

The U.N. report cautioned against hasty conclusions because “the extent to which the decrease in violence was sustainable remained unclear.”

Violent attacks have grown more frequent in recent weeks…

With Saturday’s death, at least 3,988 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count…

The report, the 12th issued from the U.N. in Iraq, comes in the wake of the first sizable reduction in troops since a security plan began last year…

The report also raised questions about human rights violations at detainment facilities in Kurdistan, and the conduct of private security firms such as Blackwater Worldwide, which remains at the center of a federal probe following the deaths 17 Iraqi civilians last year.

Ah yes, the so very helpful “the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.”

The influx of thousands of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad, but violence elsewhere in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations said Saturday.

So what exactly are these Solons at the United Nations suggesting? That we stay in Iraq forever?

Have they told their lickspittle minions, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama?

Say, maybe the UN should send in a peacekeeping force?  (Of course I kid.)

The report, the 12th issued from the U.N. in Iraq, comes in the wake of the first sizable reduction in troops since a security plan began last year…

Isn’t it funny the things are media never bothers to report.

With Saturday’s death, at least 3,988 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count…

The report also raised questions about human rights violations at detainment facilities in Kurdistan, and the conduct of private security firms such as Blackwater Worldwide…

And yet there is always room for their death count and suggestions that the US is torturing poor innocents.