THE AP GETS IT RIGHT AGAIN

Almost 4 years ago, Charles Hanley of the Associated Press wrote a great piece that reviewed Colin Powell's U.N. speech. Today, he gives us a stark report on Iraq. The opening tells you all you need to know. For a recap of the other "turning points," go here.

More than four years into war, Iraq's violent history is still echoing itself
By Charles J. Hanley
AP Special Correspondent
Updated: 3:09 p.m. MT June 19, 2007

BAGHDAD - In Iraq, after four years and three months of war, the echoes have begun to echo themselves.

American troops are taking Baghdad's streets back from insurgents. The prime minister has a plan for national reconciliation. To the south, in the "triangle of death," two U.S. soldiers are missing, captives in enemy hands.

Those were the headlines a year ago.

...the war also has taken new and different turns in the past year.
Insurgent bombers have targeted the bridges over the Tigris and over Baghdad's critical highways. More than ever they're hitting the fortress-like Green Zone, home of the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government; they've hammered the enclave with rockets and mortar fire more than 80 times since March, reportedly killing at least 26 people, U.N. figures show. On Tuesday, another mortar barrage hit the area.

Young soldiers' attitudes are suffering, too, after repeat tours in Iraq. Almost half in a Pentagon survey released last month said their unit's morale is low or very low. Morale took a fresh blow when the Army announced that 12-month tours would be extended to 15.

This war has survived countless "turning points," including last June's killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a U.S. success some in Washington touted as a prelude to a "sea change" in U.S. fortunes. It wasn't.

Now U.S. hopes rest on "Imposing the Law," the four-month-old security crackdown, a "surge" of U.S. reinforcements billed as a promising change of strategy. But this, too, is another echo — of "Together Forward," launched in June last year, and "Lightning" of a year before that.

This 2007 operation already shows the weakness that undercut the others, lackluster support from an Iraqi army plagued with desertions and reluctant troops.

"Units that deployed came into Baghdad at only about 60 to 65 percent of their authorized strength," Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, outgoing chief U.S. trainer for Iraqi forces, told an interviewer.

Electricity, available a few hours a day, grows scarcer. Four years after the U.S. vowed to restore power, the supply in early June was 8 percent below the 2006 level. Oil production, vital to Iraq's economy, remains crippled — at levels even lower than last June's production.