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Length: 5:03
ANDERSON COOPER: This is
a staggering report. Eight of the reconstruction
projects that this report examined -- the new
reconstruction projects, the projects which had been
touted as successes by the Bush administration --
eight of them; seven of them are not successes, seven
of them are not working.
CNN's Michael Ware has covered the war for years now
in Iraq. He tells it like it is. He joined me earlier
from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Michael, 104 U.S. troops have died so far in
April, the sixth deadliest month of the war so far.
And in the past six to seven months they have been
especially deadly for U.S forces. Is this because the
insurgents have shifted to once again targeting
Americans instead of Iraqis? Or is it because of the
change in U.S. tactics, Americans are just being
exposed more?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, it's
a little bit of both. There has been some kind of a
shift, particularly amongst the Sunni insurgents, to
refocus their attacks on American troops and Iraqi
troops.
These homegrown guerrilla fighters are well aware of
how unpopular al Qaeda's attacks against the civilian
population are. And these homegrown fighters need
that civilian population. Indeed, that's who they're
fighting for.
So, yes, there has been some shift within some parts
of the insurgency to refocus on U.S. forces.
But by and large, particularly this month, the main
reason why we've seen such a dreadful spike is that
essentially U.S. troops are out there much more.
They're much more exposed. They're putting themselves
back on the front line.
The concept of trying to push the Iraqis forward, to
put an Iraqi face on this war has failed. It hasn't
worked. So now, under the new strategy, under the new
war commander, General David Petreaus, American
troops and American Marines are being forced to step
up and take on the fight themselves.
And don't forget, we're seeing U.S. troops not
sheltering within their large combat bases or
garrisons, as they have in the past. But now, we're
seeing them break down into remote combat outposts
that are very, very small, that are much juicier
targets for the insurgents.
Even though these places are heavily defended,
nonetheless, the American troops are much, much more
exposed today.
COOPER: Michael, there's also a stunning report out
by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction --
at least I found it stunning. They sampled eight
reconstruction projects that the U.S. had been saying
were success stories, and they found that seven of
them were not even functioning.
Now, the Bush administration has been saying all
along, you know, the media isn't reporting success
stories. Now it seems the success stories aren't
success stories at all. Why are these projects
failing?
WARE: Well, I have to tell you, Anderson, I mean, I
can't say that I've personally seen one major
successful reconstruction project. I mean, this is
one of the greatest complaints of the ordinary Iraqi.
Almost since the war began, but certainly in recent
years they're saying, "Where is everything you
promised us? Where are the things that we're supposed
to be holding on for, that you're supposed to be
fighting for?"
I mean, there's been untold corruption throughout the
Iraqi administration. So the ability to harness the
bureaucracy, to deliver any kind of aid, is crippled
or nonexistent.
Also, you have a wealth of security concerns. It's so
difficult to get an engineer to a project or to
protect workers as they build something. And we've
seen time and time again, every time the Americans or
American funding refurbishes a school or repairs an
oil pipeline, it's blown up in retaliation.
Anything seen to have been touched by the American or
the occupier's hand is a target. So, this is
absolutely devastating.
COOPER: And what's amazing about this report is even
when it's not terrorism-related, when it's not
insurgents attacking these things, it's, you know,
multimillion dollar equipment just going unused,
there not being enough spare parts. It doesn't seem
like there's follow-up to these reconstruction
projects even when they survive any attacks or
interest by the insurgents. It's a stunning report.
We'll talk more about it in the coming days.
Michael Ware, thanks a lot.
WARE: Thank you, Anderson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, the violence in Iraq fueled a sharp
increase in global terrorism last year. Here's the
raw data just out today.
According to the State Department's annual report on
terrorism, the bloodshed in Iraq accounted for nearly
half of the 14,000 attacks in 2006. Iraq was also
linked to two-thirds of the more than 20,000
terror-related deaths worldwide. The number of
attacks rose more than 25 percent from 2005. And the
number of deaths blamed on the attacks grew by about
40 percent.