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Bush "Cutting and Running" From Areas of Iraq?
The Bush administration makes a big tough show about refusing to "cut and run" from Iraq, yet it appears that we are ceding entire cities to the Iraqi insurgency. It started in May when we gave Fallujah over to fundamentalists, and it continues throughout the country as we lost Samarra last week....

...What amazes me most is that as we give up ground repeatedly in Iraq our casualties are growing. Our military retreats from hotly contested areas and still our soldiers are dying at higher rates, increasing by a dozen a month from June to August. After backing away from Najaf and the fight against Sadr's army, we have still lost four soldiers in early September.

Our men and women are still dying, and we are giving up ground. It's that simple. That is not a winning military strategy in action.

And Iraq is not the only place where we have lost control of entire areas of a country we conquered. The Taliban operates freely in areas of Afghanistan, and a UN report suggests they may be able to retake control of certain parts of the country....