War correspondent says "U.S. no longer controls anything" in Iraq

Roger Auque, war correspondent in Iraq for TV5 in Europe and RDI in Canada, was interviewed on a talk-show on Radio-Canada tonight. He says that the situation has deteriorated in Iraq in the last three months to the point where the U.S. army or the Iraqi authorities "no longer control anything." He also says that a real insurrection is to be feared and that the "battle Bagdad" could happen soon.

For those who wonder, yes, he is French. But he does admit that in France and generally in Europe, there is anti-Americanism because "European confuse the American nation with Bush."

He says that "Seen from Bagdad, things are a bit different." He believes that Bush was right to go to war - that Saddam was a terrible dictator. He says that "Bush has lied - there were no weapons of mass destruction. But Saddam would have gotten those weapons sooner or later."

Other quotes -

"The Americans have won their war, but they've bungled the after-war."

"If Bush is re-elected, there will be war in Iran. It's for sure, because if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, it'll send it on Israel. So where does the concept of preventive war stop?"

"Americans cannot tolerate to have minimum one soldier killed per day in Iraq - so whether it's Bush or Kerry, they'll take their soldiers out, and give the keys of power to the most visible majority, which is the fundamentalist shiites. And in exchange for those keys, they'll ask for guarantees that they'll be able to exploit the oil."

If I can find a link to that program, will post.

You will see the sparks fly day after Bush's re election.

There's no control in Iraq, but for the sake of the reelection, they continually lie to the American public, talking about elections there...
What elections?
How could elections be held in such a battleground?

Who believes this stuff?

I agree that we lost control in Iraq right after Saddam was taken out of power, the fate of that country is something that US will not be able to control.

No without a lot of casualties from our site. US opened the pandora box and is not going to be able to close it any time soon.




[edit on 10-10-2004 by marg6043]

Here's what I've found pretty quickly... an interview on Radio-Canada's radio service, in French however (sorry):
radio-canada.ca...

Apparently, Auque is not a newbie in journalism - he was kidnapped by terrorists in Lebanon in 1987.
www.time.com...

Auque is also mentioned in this article about war correspondents in Iraq:
www.worldpress.org...

Also see these sources - a forum on the role of media in covering international conflict, in which Roger Auque apparently participated (see under "Hostages" section): www.colorado.edu...

Thanks for all the links Otts...I have to start listening to Radio Canada more often.

p.s. Nice to see a fellow Ottawan here :-)

sensfan - even had I not known you're an Ottawan, your name tells me everything I need to know.

The talk show is called "Tout le monde en parle", hosted by Guy A. Lepage.

No only we are facing the casualties on our ranks in Iraq but something that is not covered is the injuries, resulting from the conflict, at the rate we are having of soldiers having to come home because of injuries we are going to face a shortage very soon.

And that is a reality.