Crossposted at DailyKos.

The Guardian is running an absolutely stunning story this morning, one that should be shoved straight up Cheney’s and Scottie’s ass. This is not an insurgency in it’s “last throes”. This is a guerilla force that is getting smarter, uglier and more effective.

The next time some wingnut asshole wants to tell you about how well things are going in Iraq, point their clueless ass to this story:

Gunmen take over Ramadi as bomb kills five marines

Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against US forces while terrorising the population with public beheadings.

A huge bomb killed five American marines yesterday and showered body parts on to rooftops, fuelling suspicion that armour-piercing technology is being developed and tested in Ramadi.

much more on the flip…

US troops recovered the remains and withdrew to their base outside the Arab Sunni stronghold, leaving masked gunmen to erect checkpoints and carry out what residents said was the latest of many executions.

A man described as an Egyptian spy was beheaded and his body dumped on a busy shopping street. Warned by the killers to leave it for five days, shoppers pretended not to notice the figure in the brown robe, its head resting on its back.

Four days ago two suspected Shia militiamen were <b<beheaded</b> in the marketplace in full view of traders, said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified. Two boys played football with one of the heads, he added.

Insurgents have “taken” much of the city and now are erecting checkpoints? Public executions? Beheaded Shia? Is this what a movement in its “last throes” looks like?

It gets worse.

American troops guarded two bridges outside the city and every few entered the town in armoured Humvees. Each time streets emptied, leaving the convoy to patrol in near silence. Once it passed, people ventured outdoors again, including men in scarves and masks who wielded knives, assault rifles and rocket launchers.

Two cars with about 10 men set up checkpoints during the day, stopping and questioning anyone deemed suspicious. Several people were taken away, their fate unclear.

….

Residents said they were frightened of the insurgents but most dreaded a US-led offensive similar to that which flattened Falluja. They said the rebels were Iraqi Sunnis, not foreign Islamist radicals.

That, my friends, sounds like we’re losing Ramadi. I take that back. It sounds as if we’ve lost Ramadi.

Quick! Cue clueless American General:

Brigadier General Donald Alston, a coalition spokesman, played down the violence.

“I would not consider the situation in Ramadi to be anything extraordinary at this time,” he said. “We continue to put pressure on the insurgency in all parts of Iraq, including Ramadi.”

Nice. The insurgents apparently control most of the city, are erecting checkpoints, beheading folks in puclic and blowing the shit out of armored Humvees in a new and viciously effective way.

All Humvees are now armoured but there is suspicion that insurgents have learned to make “shape charges” which narrow the force of blasts to penetrate armour. Children played with the vehicle’s charred debris.

That sounds pretty “last throes” to me to, idiot. I would suggest that General Alston buy a fucking clue, but unfortunately they ain’t for sale.

How are we going to win back Ramadi? Perhaps a “charm offensive”? Maybe not.

Residents said that in reprisal for their losses US troops fired grenades at a minibus as it crossed the bridge at 6am yesterday.

Eight girls and women died and a Jordanian man was injured, said hospital staff. It was not possible to verify the account. A US military spokesman said he had heard no such reports.

“heard no such reports”? That’s not much of a denial there, Mr. “US military spokesman”.

What a fucking mess. I usually say something about the situation in Iraq being a “clusterfuck”. This story shows the situation on the ground in Ramadi to be much, much worse. What we’ve got here is a failure so tragic and profound that we should probably label it differently.

In Ramadi at least, we’ve lost.

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