Failure begins to look possible

摘要

It was clear even before the eve-of -Ramadan bombings which killed more than 40 people in Baghdad on October 27th that America was facing a more lethal insurgency than it had bargained for in post-war Iraq. Though nobody is quite sure who the attackers are-the evidence points to a combination of local and foreign Islamist jihadis, as well as remnants of the former regime-there is no doubting their efficacy. Their targets have been painfully well chosen. The insurgents have killed the UN'S top man, forcing most UN international staff to flee the country. They have killed Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, the well-respected Shia cleric-cum-politician who had seemed most willing to co-operate with the Americans. They have sabotaged the northern oil pipeline on which much of the country's oil revenue depends. They have killed many of the Iraqi policemen to whom the Americans had hoped to hand over more responsibility for security. And their audacious rocket attack on the heavily protected Rashid hotel, just when Paul Wolfowitz, America's deputy defence secretary, was in residence, showed that no target is beyond their reach.