LDT: “America is not committing to the fight”


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Length: 2:23


LOU DOBBS: Turning now to the war in Iraq, insurgents have killed two more of our troops. One soldier died in an attack north of Baghdad. Another soldier killed -- in the hospital -- of his wounds.

2,669 of our troops have now been killed in the war.

Insurgents today also killed 13 Iraqi army recruits in a suicide bomb attack on a minibus in the Iraqi capital.

Michael Ware has the report from Baghdad -- Michael.

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, you're right, the violence is not abating here in Iraq. The level of insurgent attacks remains fairly constant.

So far this month alone, according to the CNN figures we have, 26 American troops have died in the 11 days of this month already. And we see in the center of al-Qaeda here in Iraq -- in Ramadi and al-Anbar province, an area that President Bush himself highlighted in his speech just last week -- that America is only half fighting the battle.

The troops there are undermanned and are being encircled by al-Qaeda. They're fighting with what they've got, but America is not committing to the fight, despite the fact that the president and military intelligence here can point to that area as the headquarters of al-Qaeda.

We see the attacks on the Iraqi security forces continue. A man wearing a chest vest, a suicide bomber, boards a minibus full of police recruits and detonates here in the capital.

In the meantime, we have Saddam's trial. Three more witnesses from Kurdish northern Iraq gave testimony about the Anfal military campaign which they claim targeted them in the late 1980s.

Yet again we saw Saddam leap to the stage, trying to drag in current political events about federalism and the separation of the Kurdish state -- which has flared here in recent weeks -- into the courtroom. So we're seeing a strategy here in Iraq that, if it's not failing, is certainly ailing. And as we see with the Taliban resurgency that Nic Robertson referred to, that was self-evident two years ago when you could visit the Taliban safe havens in Pakistan which were sponsored by elements of the Pakistani intelligence agency -- Lou.

DOBBS: Michael, thank you very much.

Michael Ware, reporting from Baghdad.