A declassified report is claiming that the U.S. military is facing three simultaneous wars in Iraq.

The Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research and development center serving the U.S. Department of the Navy and other U.S. Defense Department interests, has determined in its latest report that the U.S. military faces three wars at once: a sectarian war, Sunni insurgency and the threat of al- Qaida.

In a report by analyst Henry Kenny, the center said the 140,000 American troops could not wage all three wars simultaneously.

“Iraqi forces have not developed rapidly enough, and U.S. forces simply do not have the numbers necessary to cover the wide swaths of territory needed to win the three wars in which they are now engaged,” said the report, which was released in December 2006.

The report said any U.S. military option must account for each of the three wars in Iraq. The center said only a force of several hundred thousand American soldiers was capable of fighting three campaigns without Iraqi help.

Yet Kenny dismissed a troop buildup in Iraq. Instead, the report, entitled “Strengthening an Embattled Nation: A strategy for contending with the three wars in Iraq,” recommended a U.S. advisory mission to develop and mentor Iraqi security forces to fight the insurgency war.

“The option, rather, would focus U.S. combat power on [al-Qaida] and death squads,” the report said. “A better approach is to conduct ground or air precision strikes against specific [al-Qaida] and death squad locations. This enables U.S. forces to concentrate resources against the most dangerous targets – those who, more than any others, stoke the fires of chaos and civil war.”

The report said 1,300 foreigners have joined al-Qaida in Iraq. Kenny said that unlike previous assessments, the number of foreign operatives has risen steadily.

“Iraq began to attract these jihadists in the wake of the U.S. invasion, and their numbers have gradually increased over the years, despite the capture and killing of several top leaders,” the report said.

The report said al-Qaida provides training, organization and money for the Sunni insurgency. The movement has become a leading force through foreign funding and control of the vast smuggling network in Iraq.

“For example, AQI finds it easy to buy the loyalty of corrupt local leaders, and to pay disgruntled and impoverished young men to assemble, place, and detonate IEDs [improvised explosive devices],” the report said.

“This threefold combination – training, organization and money – has facilitated AQI’s operations to the point where it now controls the insurgency in Ramadi, the center of the insurgency.”

The report said Shiite forces have used U.S. equipment and training to attack Sunnis in Iraq. Kenny said the U.S. military has failed to reverse penetration of Iraqi security forces by Shiite militias.

“The civil strife, however, gives a strong impetus to AQI,” the report said. “It prevents a projected U.S. withdrawal of some forces, thereby feeding anti-occupation sentiment and attracting additional Islamic extremists toward the cause celebre. Finally, it enables AQI to appeal for and receive additional financing from Muslims sympathetic to the Sunni Arab cause in Iraq.”

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.

©The Bulletin 2007

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.