Pentagon Report: Iraq War 'Major Debacle' and U.S. 'May Never Win'

THE war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt", despite improvements in security, according to a highly critical study published by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute

WASHINGTON | The war in Iraq has become ``a major debacle'' and the outcome ``is in doubt'' despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.

The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush's projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.

The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.

It was published by the university's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.

``Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle,'' says the report's opening line.

At the time the report was written last fall, more than 4,000 U.S. and foreign troops, more than 7,500 Iraqi security forces and as many as 82,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed and tens of thousands of others wounded, while the cost of the war since March 2003 was estimated at $450 billion.

``No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel,'' wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.

The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted ``manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers'' from ``all other efforts in the war on terror'' and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

``Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there [in Iraq] were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East,'' the report continued.

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